On the initiative of the Russian side, a telephone conversation took place Monday between the Minister of Defense of Armenia, Vagharshak Harutyunyan, and the Minister of Defense of Russia, Sergey Shoygu.

The heads of the defense ministries of the two strategic allied countries discussed the results of last week’s staff talks on Armenian-Russian military cooperation, as well as the process of resolving Armenia's security issues in the post-war period.

The Armenian minister of defense expressed satisfaction with the activities of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), noting that the best evidence of its effectiveness is the virtually full observance of the ceasefire, owing to which no serious incidents were registered in December 2020 and January 2021—except for one Artsakh Defense Army serviceman being wounded.

Harutyunyan and Shoygu discussed regional developments, too.