YEREVAN. – The joint group of troops of Armenia and Russia is nothing new at all, Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia, Shavarsh Kocharyan, stated at a press conference on Wednesday.

“The [respective] agreement existed since a long time ago, and it’s in force since a long time ago—since the beginning of 2000,” explained the deputy FM. “In this case, it’s about some not-so-profound changes.”

In his words, first and foremost, this matter refers to joint actions in case of aggression, and this is very important at this phase.

“We [i.e. Armenia] place our hopes on ourselves,” noted Kocharyan. “But this doesn’t mean that we don’t expect assistance by [our] partners.”

Moreover, he stressed that the assumptions, according to which the command of the Armenian army may be handed over to another army at some point, are unfounded.

“It’s about the [military] subdivision for joint actions,” added Kocharyan.

Commenting on some analysts’ statements that the Armenian-Russian joint military group may somehow affect Armenian-Georgian relations, the deputy FM of Armenia noted that there exists the precedent in 2008, when Armenia was able to maintain good neighborly relations with both Georgia and Russia, when these two countries had a brief war with one another.

“Such fears are imaginary,” said Shavarsh Kocharyan.