Biological laboratories operating in Armenia serve civilian purposes, so there can be no talk of foreign military presence, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Naghdalyan told a briefing on Thursday, December 20.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier that Moscow and Yerevan are preparing a document that will guarantee the non-presence of foreign military in Armenia. "Together with Armenia, we are completing the process of preparing a document that will guarantee the non-presence of foreign military there and which will guarantee that everything is transparent,” Lavrov said in response to the question about why Russia "allowed the creation of three American biological laboratories in Armenia in 2016."

Naghdalyan said Yerevan is not negotiating with a third country on the deployment of their troops to Armenia.

“Sanitary-epidemiological control sector is a part of the Armenian-Russian cooperation agenda, there is a dialogue on this issue,” Naghdalyan was quoted as saying.

“Biological laboratories, meanwhile, belong to Armenia and have always been and will remain civilian facilities.”