YEREVAN. – Within the framework of his working visit to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Armenia’s Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan on Wednesday met with the Artsakh Minister of Defense and Defense Army Commander, Mikayel Arzumanyan, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia informed.

The commander of the Defense Army presented the situation on the Artsakh-Azerbaijani line of contact, the work being carried out on the front line, and the process of creating new military infrastructure. Arzumanyan stressed that work was underway to reorganize the Artsakh troops and review the challenges and makeup of its units.

Armenia’s Minister of Defense highlighted the large-scale work being carried out in the Artsakh Defense Army, and assured that all possible actions would be taken to transform and further strengthen the security system of the two Armenian republics.

Reference was made also to the collaboration with the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh .

Armenia’s Minister of Defense Vagharshak Harutyunyan visited also the Artsakh State Service for Emergency Situations, talked to its personnel involved in the search for the bodies of the casualties of the recent Artsakh war, and noted the need to increase these search groups.

Later, Armenia’s Minister of Defense—together with the Artsakh President, commander of the Defense Army, and head of the state emergency service—participated in a meeting with the relatives of the missing and captured Armenian servicemen. Vagharshak Harutyunyan noted during this talk that the interdepartmental commission set up in Armenia was holding talks to increase the intensity of the ongoing search and to expand the search areas. Harutyunyan added that he regularly has telephone conversations with his Russian counterpart and the commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh, focusing on the return of the captives and the exchange of the bodies of the dead.