ARMENIA IS NOT PLANNING TO JOIN NATO TODAY – MKRTCHYAN

ITAR-TASS, Russia
March 14 2007

YEREVAN, March 14 (Itar-Tass) – Head of the Armenian Mission to NATO
Samvel Lazarian has stated here that his republic was not planning
to join the Atlantic Alliance but would be compelled to reconsider
it stand if Georgia were to accede to NATO.

"We deem it necessary for our relations with NATO to fit into
the framework of the individual partnership plan. We regard this
voluminous document as a bulwark of our national security, Lazarian
stated, speaking on Wednesday at the "Urbat" (Friday) press club
here. "Partnership with NATO does not pursue the goal of membership
in the Alliance and it is country’s right to independently assess
the forms of its national security," he noted.

"It depends on the tendencies of regional development" whether Armenia
will be a member of the North Atlantic Alliance or not," Lazarian
believes. Georgia is in a hurry to join NATO, and if this happens,
"Armenia will have to reconsider its attitude" to membership to
the Alliance," he added. This is even more obvious "since we have
proclaimed the course of European integration as our foreign policy
priority," he noted.

"Armenia’s relations with NATO have notably developed in the past 2-3
years" and this is testified by the opening of an Armenian mission
at NATO," Lazarian stated.