The spokeswoman for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Nazeli Baghadasarian, said he reached such an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their talks in Moscow held earlier in the day.
“At the checkpoint on the Armenia-Iran state border, the service will be carried out entirely by the Border Guard Troops of Armenia’s [National Security Service,]” she wrote on Facebook.
Baghdasarian said the two leaders also agreed that starting from next year Armenian border guards “will also participate in the protection” of the country’s borders with Iran and Turkey together with their Russian colleagues. She gave no reason for these decisions apparently initiated by the Armenian side. Russian officials did not immediately comment on them.
The development comes just over two months after Russia completed the withdrawal of its border guards from Yerevan’s Zvartnots international airport, which was demanded by Pashinian’s government in March amid heightened tensions with Moscow. The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized the demand, saying that Yerevan risks inflicting “irreparable damage” on Russian-Armenian relations and jeopardizing Armenia’s security and economic development.
Russian border guards have for decades been stationed along Armenia’s borders with Turkey and Iran as part of close Russian-Armenian military ties. Russia also has a military base in the South Caucasus country. In March, a senior Russian lawmaker said he “would not recommend that the Armenian authorities even think about” demanding an end to the Russian military presence.
Pashinian has signaled no such plans so far. Still, he has frozen his country’s membership in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization and not ruled out a bid to join the European Union.
Tensions between the two longtime allies rose further in August after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Yerevan of “sabotaging” a Russian-brokered agreement to give Azerbaijan transport corridors to its Nakhichevan exclave. Armenian leaders rejected the accusations.
According to Baghdasarian, during the meeting with Putin, Pashinian “expressed concern about the formulations and vocabulary used by a number of Russian officials on regional topics.”
“Prime Minister Pashinian positively evaluates the results of the meeting with the Russian president,” added the official.
In his opening remarks at the talks attended by Lavrov, Putin mainly spoke about Russian-Armenian economic ties. He touted continuing rapid growth in bilateral trade.