ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
June 23, 2005 Thursday 9:28 AM Eastern Time

Armenia president believes current CSTO lineup optimal

By Viktoria Sokolova, Veronika Romanenkova

MOSCOW, June 23

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan noted that the current CSTO
lineup is optimal. “I am satisfied with talks in the close format.
This is a lineup with which we do not argue much, and have a striving
to solve tasks,” he told a news conference after the CSTO summit.

Kocharyan is confident that the CSTO is an organisation that is
developing dynamically. Meanwhile, he believes that the CSTO should
be more involved in the work of other international structures. “More
international involvement is needed. We stated about ourselves, but
we can work in a broader format, and this issue was discussed in the
close format,” he pointed out.

Kocharyan noted that the military aspect “remains the major component
of our cooperation.” The Armenian president noted that “effective
instruments should be created” to counteract new threats.