Armenia’s membership of CIS military bloc won’t impact ties with NATO – envoy

Mediamax news agency
24 Feb 05

YEREVAN

The terms of signing the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP)
between Armenia and NATO depend on the Armenian side, the special
representative of the NATO secretary-general in the South Caucasus and
Central Asia, Robert Simmons, said in Yerevan today.

NATO highly appreciates Armenia’s wish to sign the IPAP with the
alliance and is ready to render any kind of support to draft this
document, he said.

Nevertheless, it is up to the Armenian side to decide on the contents
and terms of signing the document, Simmons added.

He noted that NATO’s communications officer, Romualds Razuks, will
consult the Armenian interagency group which is working on the IPAP.

Although time is needed to draft the IPAP, Armenia is already involved
in the activities under the aegis of NATO, Simmons said. He informed
that a group of NATO experts on defence planning will visit Armenia in
the near future to meet the representatives of the Armenian Defence
Ministry.

Robert Simmons spoke highly of the Armenian servicemen’s participation
in the peacekeeping operations in Kosovo and Iraq. This testifies to
Armenia’s sincere wish to make a contribution to international
security, he said.

Answering questions from journalists, the special representative of
the NATO secretary-general said that Yerevan’s membership of the [CIS]
Collective Security Treaty Organization and close Armenian-Russian
relations will have no impact on the level of the NATO-Armenia
relations.

“We have very good relations with Russia. Apart from this, we have
frequently said that NATO is not building relations with countries on
the basis of rivalry or taking into account its membership of various
organizations or alliances,” Robert Simmons said.
From: Baghdasarian