Defence minister says Armenia aims to join European family

Noyan Tapan news agency
25 Jan 05

YEREVAN

“We see ourselves as Europeans and our objective is to become a
fully-fledged member of this family,” the secretary of the Armenian
Security Council and defence minister, Serzh Sarkisyan, told a
visiting delegation led by the EU special representative for the South
Caucasus, Ambassador Heikki Talvitie.

Talvitie said one of his functions is to lay the foundation for
Armenian-EU cooperation in conflict settlement. He said that as a
result of the forthcoming signing of the agreement on individual
partnership, which is part of the European Neighbourhood Policy, all
the South Caucasus states will be assessed in accordance with their
real opportunities.

As regards the Nagornyy Karabakh problem, Serzh Sarkisyan said: “I
have always been in favour of a negotiated solution to the Nagornyy
Karabakh problem and I am sure that the issue must be resolved only
peacefully.”

Welcoming the Armenian defence minister’s position, Heikki Talvitie
expressed the hope that progress would be made in resolving the
Nagornyy Karabakh problem peacefully.

[Passage omitted: list of people included in the visiting EU
delegation]