Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan is concerned over Russia’s military presence in arch-foe Armenia, a senior official has said.

Araz Azimov, the deputy foreign minister, told Echo of Moscow radio station that Russia should shift from military presence to "economic presence" in the South Caucasus region.

"Unfortunately, Russia deems it important to maintain its armed forces in Armenia," he said. "We are increasingly seeing less basis for such military presence in the South Caucasus. It is time to replace tanks with tankers and military uniforms with economic presence."

Russia runs the Gyumri military base in Armenia. The country was previously set to vacate the base in 2020. But in 2010 Moscow signed an agreement extending its military presence until 2044, and also committing Russia to updating Armenia's military hardware and ensuring its security.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said earlier that the military base in the Armenian town of Gyumri is unlikely to be used for aims defying Azerbaijan.

"We have quite high military-political cooperation with Russia," he told Russian Interfax news agency. "I don’t think the Russian base in Gyumri will take any anti-Azerbaijani actions that would contradict the level of relations between Azerbaijan and Russia."

Commenting on the Russian-Armenian security cooperation, the minister said Baku does not interfere with Moscow’s "relations with its outpost".

"Therefore, it is up to Russia to decide how to strengthen and keep its outpost. On the other hand, we would like more transparency and openness of decisions…so that everyone would know the clear-cut position they take."