Speech of the SC Secretary

20 / 11 / 2019

The 7th annual meeting of the CIS Security Council Secretaries took place in Moscow, the capital of Russian Federation on November 20.

During the meeting the Secretary of the Security Council Mr. ArmenGrigoryan made a speech.

Below we present the full speech.

“Good day, dear colleagues,

First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolay Patrushev for today's meeting, as always, for the high level of organization and warm reception and hospitality.
Taking advantage of this opportunity I would like to great all the participants of our meeting and wish all effective work.

Today we have a quite rich agenda: we listened to both informative reports and current affairs discussion reports, which were interesting and meaningful.

Considering the regulation of my speech, from the information reports, I would like to highlight the report of the Russian Armed Forces Engineering Representative on the International Mine Action Center and the screening of the film on humanitarian demining.You are really doing a very important, useful and noble job. Thanks to you, thousands of people stay alive, healthy and safe.

We are also interested in this topic, because in February 2019 a group of 83 Armenian specialists began its mission in Syria, which includes demining specialists, medical staff, and persons ensuring their safety.The activities of the Armenian mission are carried out in cooperation with the Russian side and with its technical support.

I would also like to briefly address the reasons why we decided to send a humanitarian mission to Syria.

The first is historical. Hundreds of years ago, Syrians took refuge in the thousands of Armenians who survived the genocide in the Ottoman Empire.And today, gratefully remembering the support we had at that time,in a figurative way, we strive to repay debt, to help Syria, which is in trouble now and needs help.

The second factor is the presence of a large Armenian community in Syria. Our state feels responsible for our compatriots abroad.Therefore, in deciding whether to send a humanitarian mission to Syria in response to an official request by the Syrian government, we also took into account the request of the Armenian community in Aleppo.

Third, Armenia, while addressing its own security issues, also feels responsible for ensuring peace and stability in the region as a whole.In this regard, we always strive to make our contribution to the common cause, and the humanitarian mission sent to Syria is exactly in this logic.

As a result of mission work over the past year, Armenian sappers have cleared tens of thousands of square meters of land in Syria, helping locals regain a peaceful, normal life.

Doctors of the Armenian Humanitarian Mission provided medical assistance to thousands of Syrians during the period, carrying out hundreds of surgeries. At the same time, I would like to emphasize that we value our mission even in saving one human life.

In this year on October 14th another group of specialists in the Armenian humanitarian mission left for Syria replacing the previous group there, and its operations in Syria now continues successfully.

As for the issues under discussion, I would like to first of all address the chemical and biological threats to safety.

I would like to inform you that the process of developing a new National Security Strategy is underway with the coordinating role of the Security Council staff in the Republic of Armenia.The process is already nearing completion, and we will soon submit the full text of the draft document, which will be accepted after final agreement.

With regard to biological safety, I would like to emphasize that by the decision of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia on October 8, 2018, a Biological Safety Working Group has been set up and I have been entrusted to manage it.
Currently, the Working Group, co-ordinated by the staff of the Armenian Security Council, is actively working on the creation and improvement of the regulatory framework, implementation of measures in this area and development of international cooperation.A great deal of work has been done, and largely due to the work done by the working group, doubts have been dispelled by our partners.
We are preparing a draft law of the Republic of Armenia on Biological Safety and Biological Protection, which should regulate this sphere systematically.

It will define the powers and responsibilities of state bodies, requirements for research, rules and regulations for the production, use, storage, import, export, transit and other operations of biologically hazardous substances will be approved, other important issues will be resolved.

The basic principle that guides us in this area is openness and transparency in the field, unconditional and precise implementation of the provisions of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Prohibition and Production of Weapons containing Microbial (Biological) and Toxic Substances.

In this context, we would like to emphasize that the biological laboratories in Armenia operate only under our jurisdiction, under the jurisdiction of our state agencies and are staffed exclusively by local specialists.
At the same time, the Republic of Armenia attaches importance to the development of international cooperation in the field of biological security.

To confirm it, I would like to note that on October 3 of this year Russian-Armenian consultations on biological security were held in Moscow with the participation of stakeholders, during which a thorough and reliable exchange of views on this issue took place.The consultations reaffirmed the commonality of approaches between Russia and Armenia and readiness for close coordination and interaction in multilateral platforms specialized in biological safety.

We are also ready to cooperate within the CIS both in a multilateral format and with all stakeholders in the bilateral dimension.Development of a normative-legal framework, exchange of experience, mutual visits of specialists, holding seminars and discussions, conducting joint events are important for the development of our cooperation in the field of biological safety.

As for the situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, I would like to add that in this context we attach importance to the process of consolidating the efforts of the CIS member states on specialized international platforms, utilizing all the existing formats and capabilities.

In particular, the Republic of Armenia participates in the activities of the Working Group on Afghanistan under the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers, aimed at coordinating the activities of the CSTO member states in that direction.The last meeting of this working group took place on October 28-29, 2019 in Dushanbe.

One of the major security threats from Afghanistan is drug trafficking, which has become a global issue. The Republic of Armenia also actively participates in measures aimed at combating drug trafficking.

As an example, I would like to mention that September 23-27, 2019, within the framework of the "CANAL" regional anti-drug complex operation under the auspices of the CSTO, the sub-regional anti-drug operation "Canal-Caucasian Fence" was carried out, whose international coordination headquarters was located in Yerevan.As a result of the joint work of the law enforcement agencies and special services of the States Parties to the Action, more than 17 ton of narcotics were seized from the vast territory of all CSTO member states, more than 1,600 drug crimes were discovered, and more than 2600 were arrested for drug trafficking.

As another area of cooperation for the establishment of peace and stability in Afghanistan, I would like to note that since 2010 the Republic of Armenia has been participating in international missions to promote security in Afghanistan, with its contribution to international collective forces.The Republic of Armenia continues to participate in the "Resolute Support Missionin Afghanistan".

Closely related to the Afghan issue is another issue on our agenda - improving cooperation on neutralizing threats from foreign terrorists and excluding them from moving across the CIS.

Despite the lack of favorable conditions for the operation and financing of international terrorist organizations in Armenia for objective reasons, we understand that insurgents can also use our territory as a transit route.Now no one can claim that they can stay away from these processes. So we constantly monitor the situation and follow trends, ready to respond in time to any change in the situation.

In particular, this year the active phase of the "Mercenary" operative-prophylactic complex measures were implemented in the CSTO member states, including in the Republic of Armenia, aimed at preventing the redistribution and transportation of the militants.

We are also working to establish cooperation within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, where Armenia has the status of a dialogue partner, in particular in the formulation of the SCO Anti-Terrorism Regional Framework.
I would also like to specifically mention that in the Republic of Armenia there has been no case of any organization or institution being judged to be a terrorist organization. that is, in this respect we, unlike other countries, are a prosperous country.

Thank you for attention!"