CSTO GEN-SEC TO ARRIVE IN YEREVAN FOR 3-DAY VISIT

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
March 13, 2007 Tuesday 03:16 AM EST

General Secretary of the Collective Security Treaty Organization
(CSTO) Nikolai Bordyuzha is arriving in Yerevan for a three-day visit
on Tuesday evening.

As Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Armen Kirakosyan told Itar-Tass,
the general secretary will come "to continue a dialogue with
the republic’s leadership and hold meetings with the public." In
particular, Bordyuzha will address students and teachers of the
Yerevan State University and speak at the Military Institute of the
Defence Ministry of the republic.

"Armenia is and continues to be a CSTO member," confirmed
Kirakosyan. According to him, "cooperation of the republic with NATO
cannot be considered as rivalry with cooperation in CSTO." "In one
case, we are a member of CSTO, and in another – – we cooperate with
NATO," the diplomat explained.

"With Russia we have large-scale relations in the sphere of security,
are a member of CSTO and simultaneously develop cooperation with NATO
within the plan of individual partnership," Armenian Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanyan stressed. "Cooperation of many years has shown that
there is no contradiction in these issues," the minister believes. By
means of this cooperation will be able to make a contribution to the
consolidation of security in the region," Oskanyan thinks.

"Armenia considers CSTO as one of the most important factors of
ensuring its security," Secretary of the National Security Council,
Defence Minister of the republic Serzh Sarkisyan said. According to
him, "Armenian-Russian cooperation within the framework of CSTO is
one of the most important guarantees of ensuring military security
of Armenia."

The minister recalled that within the CSTO framework,
a Russian-Armenian group of troops, which includes units of the
Russian military base in Armenia and the Armenian Armed Forces, was
formed and successfully operating in the Caucasian direction within
the framework of CSTO.