ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT CREATES COUNCIL ON EU RELATIONS

AP Worldstream
Sep 07, 2006

Armenia’s Cabinet said Thursday that it is creating a national council
for cooperation with the European Union and a government commission
that will coordinate relations with Brussels.

The commission will be chaired by Prime Minister Andranik Margarian,
and the council will include civil society groups, the government
press service said.

While it seeks to improve ties with the West, Armenia is Russia’s
closest ally among the three ex-Soviet republics of the Caucasus
Mountain region.

The speaker of parliament triggered a political scandal in the nation
of 3.3 million in April, when he reportedly told a German newspaper
that Armenia’s future lies with the European Union and NATO.

President Robert Kocharian quickly disavowed the remarks, saying
Armenia’s close military ties with Russia and other regional countries
provide sufficient security and that it has no plans to join NATO.

The speaker, Artur Bagdasarian, later resigned after his liberal
party quit the governing coalition because of dissatisfaction with
the government’s foreign policy and the pace of democratic reform.