Armenian Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan had a telephone conversation with the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Army General Valery Gerasimov on Tuesday, March 24 evening.

According to a statement from the Armenian Defense Ministry, issues related to the military cooperation between the two countries, their joint military groups, as well as a number of security issues facing the southern Armenian province of Syunik were discussed.

After the completion of military hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), a number of villages and towns in Syunik have become border settlements. Azerbaijani troops, who are often deployed in close proximity to civilians infrastructure, have been recorded opening indiscriminate fire in their posts.

The two also weighed in on programs of modernization and the large-scale reform of the Armed Forces of Armenia. Harutyunyan and Gerasimov agreed to arrange the visit of a high-ranking delegation from Russia to Armenia in the near future for more detailed discussions on said issues.