ARMENIAN DEPUTY MINISTER: ARMENIA NEVER POSED NATO MEMBERSHIP AS ITS TASK

Regnum, Russia
Feb 5 2007

Military reform is rife in Armenia, Armenia’s Deputy Defense Minister
Artur Agabekyan announced at a panel in Yerevan, called "Strengthening
of Civil Control over Security Sector."

According to him, reforming the defense system supposes first of
all changing the legislation, as the current legislation does not
correspond the reality and future putting limits on democratization
and modernization of the Armed Forces.

Meanwhile, talking to reporters, Agabekyan noted that Armenia
has never set as its task directing these reforms towards NATO
membership. Armenia pursues a complimentary policy and one of
manifestations of such policy is cooperation with NATO as well as
with CSTO and this cooperation is aimed at modernizing Armenia’s
defense system. He also noted that despite some statements there are
no concepts like "NATO weapons" or "NATO structure." "The country is
powerful that has its own standards and can do so that the standards
can be comparable with partners’ standards," he concluded.