Armenia is expanding involvement in United Nations peacekeeping missions, Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan told the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial Conference in New York on Friday, March 29.

Tonoyan declared that Armenia is planning to establish an international center for training peacekeepers, the Voice of America says.

The Defense Minister reminded Armenian peacekeepers are currently deployed in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

"Together with our American partners, we are developing the national program for the training of peacekeepers which will enable our servicemen to receive adequate training," he said

Weighing on the decision to send a humanitarian mission to Syria, Tonoyan said the move is a response to the requests of Syria and the Armenian community in the Middle Eastern country. He said the Armenian mission involves doctors and sappers.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Thursday, March 28 that sending a humanitarian mission to Syria means responding in kind to the people who helped Armenians fleeing the Genocide in 1915.