Armenian minister says cancellation of NATO drills “loss of opportunity”

Mediamax news agency
13 Sep 04

Yerevan, 13 September: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan and
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer expressed their deep
concern at a meeting in Brussels today that “Azerbaijan hindered
the participation of Armenian servicemen in NATO exercises at the
highest level”.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry press service reported that “the NATO
secretary-general said that such an approach was unacceptable for
a Partnership for Peace member country and was assessed as a breach
of commitments”. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that if the Azerbaijani
authorities did not reverse their decision today, the NATO leadership
would cancel the exercises.

Vardan Oskanyan rated highly NATO’s principled position on this issue,
noting that “the cancellation of the exercises because of Azerbaijan is
a great loss of an opportunity for regional cooperation”. The Armenian
foreign minister said that Yerevan’s official position was that the
authorities of regional countries should try to implant the idea of
cooperation into the minds of their people, which will help settle
conflicts. In this connection, Vardan Oskanyan recalled that although
Armenia and Turkey had no diplomatic relations, Turkish servicemen had
taken part in the Cooperative Best Effort – 2003 exercises in Armenia.

Vardan Oskanyan filled the NATO secretary-general in on the latest
developments in the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh problem and
the Armenian-Turkish dialogue at the level of the foreign ministers
of the two countries.

The Armenian foreign minister also met the US ambassador to NATO,
Nicholas Burns, at the NATO headquarters. Vardan Oskanyan filled
him in on the current stage of Armenia-NATO relations, and the sides
exchanged views on the security in the South Caucasus, settlement of
conflicts and measures to build confidence between neighbours.