ARMENIA DOES NOT PLAN TO JOIN NATO – PRESIDENT

Interfax News Agency
June 27 2008
Russia

Armenia does not plan to join NATO, Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan said."We have always said and are saying now that Armenia’s
foreign political agenda does not envision accession to NATO,"
Sargsyan said in an interview published in Kommersant on Friday.

"Armenia finds it beneficial to be a member of the CSTO [the Collective
Security Treaty Organization]," Sargsyan said. "We have built our
armed forces on the basis of the Soviet doctrine, and they are armed
with Soviet military hardware. Almost all the weapons we have today
are either Soviet or Russian," Sargsyan said. "All this needs to be
maintained, modernized, and replenished. The CSTO provides for such
a chance. We have privileged conditions for military-technological
cooperation there and are content with this," he said.

Talking about the settlement of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh,
Sargsyan said, "The Azeri leadership is saying that the conflict could
be resolved in a military way. I believe that at least two people –
the supreme commander-in-chief and the defense minister – should
therefore presume that military actions could start even tomorrow."

"However, I do not consider this a proper way to resolve the
problem. We can settle everything in a peaceful way," he said.