Armenian parliamentary candidate comments on ties with Russia, USA

Mediamax news agency
4 May 07

Yerevan, 4 May: The extraordinary ambassador and plenipotentiary
minister, Avet Adonts, who is listed 15th in the proportional list of
the Prosperous Armenia party, believes that the future relations
between Armenia and NATO should become a topic for wide public
discussions.

Avet Adonts said in an interview with Interfax that "Armenia’s
membership of NATO is currently not on the foreign policy agenda of
the Prosperous Armenia party".

"The format of Armenia-NATO relations is partnership; we are carrying
out an Individual Partnership Action Plan with NATO, which comprise
not only military-technical reforms, but also reforms in the sphere of
democracy and the judiciary. The realization of the plan will
unambiguously be in the centre of our attention," Avet Adonts said.

At that, according to him, in conditions, when Georgia states its wish
and intention to become a member of NATO, there appears the necessity
to put forward the prospect of Armenia’s membership of NATO for a wide
public discussion.

"We have to find out what the attitude of Armenian society is
concerning the prospect of relations with NATO, whether it is
possible, according to the public, for Armenia to join the alliance,"
Avet Adonts said.

In addition, according to the Prosperous Armenia party, "Armenia’s
membership of the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization]
should by no means limit the development of cooperation and further
interaction with the most prestigious military-political bloc in the
world today – NATO".

Adonts believes that "a bigger part of the efforts made within the
framework of Armenian-Russian relations should be directed not to
spoil those relations".

Avet Adonts said that "today the level of Armenian-Russian relations
is very high both in the sphere of political cooperation and in trade,
economic, military and technical spheres, as well as in the sphere of
humanitarian cooperation".

"However, taking into account the obvious polarization in relations
between Russia and the West, the regional situation, in particular,
the tension in Russian-Georgian relations, we believe that the lion’s
share of our efforts in Armenian-Russian relations should be directed
not to spoil those relations, but to preserve all the positive
tendencies," Avet Adonts stressed.

"Having said that, we are not going to make a choice between Russia
and the USA. If our foreign policy vector of relations with the USA is
weaker than the Armenia-Russia vector, it is necessary to fill in the
gap. But we believe that it is not right to unambiguously state that
the development of relations with Russia is more important in our
foreign policy than the development of relations with the USA or the
EU," Avet Adonts said.