ARMENIAN PRES SAYS DEFENSE REFORM TO REMAIN IN FOCUS OF GOVT ACTIVITY

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
June 21, 2007 Thursday 03:43 PM EST

Dymanic and efficient defense reforms will remain a centerpiece of
activity of Armenia’s government, President Robert Kocharian said
Thursday as he received Robert Simmons, NATO’s special envoy to the
Caucasus and Central Asia.

As the two men discussed the current stage of cooperation between
NATO and Armenia, they voiced satisfaction with the progress of joint
actions under a plan for individual partnership, the presidential
press service said.

Kocharian and Simmons also discussed a number of international issues.

During Simmons’s meeting with parliament speaker Tigran Torosian,
the latter man spoke in favor of a revision of the plan, saying some
of its provisions have long been fulfilled while new opportunities
for cooperation have opened up.

According to Torosian, these opportunities emerged after the recent
parliamentary election in this country and improvements in the
national legislation.

Speaking on behalf of NATO’s Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer,
Simmons congratulated Torosian on the occasion of high assessments
that western observers gave to the election process.

He said he was quite satisfied with how the partnership plan was
being implemented and called for deeper cooperation between NATO and
Armenian parliament.

The North-Atlantic bloc plans organizing a familiarization course in
Brussels for newly elected MPs and for workers of the parliament’s
administrative machinery.

Simmons said he hopes the parliament of the new convocation will make
a contribution to the partnership plan, including its aspects like
the setting up of a system of crisis management and maintenance of
security on Armenia’s state borders.

He also praised the performance of Armenian peacekeepers in Kosovo.

"As a full-fledged member of the international community, Armenia is
ready to expand its engagement in the peacekeeping operation in Kosovo
and the parliament is prepared to give support to this activity,"
Torosian said.