YEREVAN. May 22 (Interfax) - Yerevan has not received any impulses or suggestions of ending the Russian presence in Armenia from the West, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.
"We have not received any anti-Russian impulses from the West, urging to drive Russia out of the region or disrupt our relations. We discuss our relations with Russia in a very transparent manner, and there are no gray zones in them," Pashinyan said at a press conference on Monday.
He also said there was no mission of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Armenia because the CSTO "does not clearly define Armenia's territory."
"This is a fundamental problem. When they clearly define the Armenian territory, 90% of problems will be gone," Pashinyan said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the Tsargrad television channel earlier, "Russia views the U.S. suggestions that Armenia 'drive Russians out' of its territory and offers of help in the provision of security as a blatant provocation."
"I know that they [the United States] are telling the Armenians - we have such information - they should join their side, drive Russians, including border guards, out of their territory and shut down the military base, so that Americans help provide security. That's a blatant provocation. This is not diplomacy," Lavrov said.
Pashinyan said, in turn, that Armenia was discussing the provision of security with Western countries.
"We have started to discuss security affairs with our Western partners. We did not discuss such issues with the West before, as we believed the region had security architecture that should be reliable at least de jure," Pashinyan said at the press conference on Monday.
Once it became clear that "the existent security architecture does not work as it should by the agreements, we began to discuss security affairs with Western and non-Western partners," Pashinyan said.