Itar-Tass, Russia
TASS
April 12 2005
Yerevan draws up Armenia-NATO partnership plan
YEREVAN, April 12 (Itar-Tass) – A document featuring the main
directions of a plan for individual partnership between Armenia and
NATO will be submitted to the alliance’s headquarters within a
month’s time, Armenian deputy foreign minister said on Tuesday.
The foreign ministry official, Armen Baiburtyan and Deputy Defence
Minister Artur Agabekyan spoke on Tuesday at a seminar, organized
here by the George C. Marshall European Centre for Security Studies.
`A political decision to join that programme came when it became
clear that the implementation of that plan could help reform and
update the Armenian security sphere, while the republic, for its
part, could make steps that are the core of the partnership plan,’
the top Armenian diplomat said.
According to the deputy defense minister, the Armenian army is facing
serious transformations. He said the country would be guided by the
principle of stage-by-stage work in reforms in defense sphere.
Agabekyan said the country seeks `to create by 2015 an army meeting
the demands of the 21st century’.
He said the main principles underlying reforms in the defense sector
are their `realistic nature, stage-by-stage work, flexibility, broad
analysis and democracy’.