NATO REPRESENTATIVE TO DISCUSS PARTNERSHIP PLAN IN ARMENIA
by Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
October 11, 2006 Wednesday

A high-ranking NATO official will discuss in Yerevan the current
stage of cooperation, in particular the progress of an individual
partnership plan.

The NATO secretary-general’s representative for Caucasus and Central
Asia Robert Simmons arrives in the Armenia capital on Wednesday on
his tour of the region, an Armenian Foreign Ministry official told
ITAR-TASS.

Simmons will meet Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, Defence Minister
Serzh Sarkisyan and Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan.

He will inform about his trip ambassadors of NATO countries in Yerevan.

Simmons will unveil a NATO information centre in Armenia, the setting
up of which is a part of the country’s individual partnership with
the Western alliance that began in last year’s December.

Armenia "is going to activate practical and political cooperation with
NATO with the aim of coming closer with the alliance," the individual
partnership plan published in August says.

Armenia’s obligations under the plan confirm the determination to
implement a security accord signed with NATO.

Yerevan "will continue the formation of one peacekeeping battalion
meeting the NATO criteria with a view of its further transformation
into a peacekeeping brigade".