Armenia wants broader cooperation with NATO

Interfax
Sept 15 2004

Yerevan. (Interfax) – Armenia is open for serious and more extensive
cooperation with NATO, President Robert Kocharian assured a NATO
Parliamentary Assembly delegation on Tuesday.

Kocharian expressed satisfaction with the current extent of
Armenia-NATO cooperation and said his country was involved in a number
of NATO programs.

He also called for regional cooperation in the South Caucasus. This
would provide a good basis for settling conflicts, he argued.

He said Armenia had repeatedly proposed “the settlement of conflicts
in the South Caucasus via cooperation” but that Azerbaijan had rejected
the idea.

Armenia takes an active part in NATO’s Partnership for Peace program.
NATO held an exercise in Armenia in 2003 as part of the program.

The Armenian presidential press service told Interfax that Kocharian
would leave for Astana on Wednesday to take part in a Commonwealth
of Independent States summit.

The service also said the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents
planned to hold their next round of talks in Astana to settle the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.