ARMENIAN GENERAL STAFF HEAD SEES NO CHANGES IN RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN RELATIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.05.2006 18:31 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ First Deputy Defense Minister of Armenia, Head of
General Staff of the Armed Forces, Colonel General Mikayel Harutyunyan
considers linking domestic situation in Armenia with Russian-Armenian
relations inadmissible. “I do not see any changes in Russian-Armenian
relations. Both the President and the Defense Minister constantly
repeat that we were and we will be strategic partners,” Harutyunyan
said. He added that accession to the NATO is not on Armenia’s agenda
today.

“We are a CSTO member, and a state cannot be member of two military
organizations simultaneously,” he emphasized. “I believe that in the
prospect we will be in the CSTO, which is part of our state security,”
the General Staff Head said. Armenia want to have normal relations
with other countries. “I mean states of the European Union, which are
NATO members,” Harutyunyan underscored. “Our relations with the NATO
advance normally and we have an Individual Partnership Action Plan,”
he added, reports Novosti-Armenia.