Armenian leader downbeat on trilateral South Caucasus cooperation

Mediamax news agency
15 Nov 04

YEREVAN

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said in Yerevan today that Armenia
was not objecting to a cooperation initiative between the Baltic
states and the South Caucasus on the three-plus-three formula,
“although he has serious doubts about the efficiency of this format”.

Robert Kocharyan said this today, replying to a question from a
Mediamax correspondent at a joint press conference with Estonian
President Arnold Ruutel, who is on an official visit to Armenia.

Kocharyan recalled that Lithuania made the cooperation initiative
between the Baltic and South Caucasus countries on the
three-plus-three formula three years ago. “Armenia’s reaction at that
time was positive despite the fact that we considered and continue to
consider bilateral cooperation to be more promising,” Kocharyan said.

The Armenian president said that the major goal of the Lithuanian
initiative was to show the advantage of Baltic regional cooperation,
which so far has been difficult to implement in the South Caucasus
because of the existing conflicts and other problems, our agency
reports.

“We do not reject cooperation in this format, but we do not think that
one should expect special results from this,” Robert Kocharyan summed
up.