Russian-Armenian joint forces agreement forwarded to RF President for further ratification

The Russian government has approved an agreement on setting up a Russian-Armenian combined group of forces, and has submitted it to the RF (Russian Federation) president for further ratification in the State Duma (the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia).

The agreement was signed back in November 2016. However, the Armenian National Assembly hasn’t ratified the agreement yet.

As the parties to the agreement pointed out, the combined group of forces aims at the ‘timely detection of potential aggression against Armenia and Russia and its repulsion by the armed forces of the parties to the agreement, as well as by other troops’.

If the document is ratified by the parties, the combined group of forces will include the 102^nd Russian military base in Armenia, as well as the 5^th army corps of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia.

A commander of the combined group of forces will be appointed based on a joint decision by the Russian and Armenian Supreme Commanders-in-Chief.

The agreement will be in effect for a period of 5 years and, upon expiry of its term, will by default be extended for a further period of 5 years, unless either party notifies the other of its intent to terminate the agreement.

As is pointed out in the agreement on setting up the Russian-Armenian combined group of forces, ‘the agreement isn’t directed against any third country’. The Armenian Defense Minister, Vigen Sargsyan, has also confirmed it in his recent interview with the Georgian mass media. He specifically pointed out that Armenia was not going to use the combined group of forces against Georgia.