ARMENIA DEVELOPS MILITARY COOPERATION WITH EUROPE

WPS Agency
July 23 2008
Russia

Armenia entered a qualitatively new stage of relations with Europe
and started taking serious steps for upgrading military and military
political cooperation to the necessary level. Defense Minister of
Armenia, Seiran Oganyan, said this at a meeting with the British
Ambassador in Armenia on Monday.

Colonel Seiran Shakhsuvaryan, press secretary of the Armenian Defense
Minister, reported that during the meeting, the minister expressed
readiness of his country to develop interaction, especially in the
peacekeeping field, doing its best to assist the operation carried
out in Afghanistan.

Armenian servicemen have participated in the peacekeeping mission in
Kosovo within a Greek battalion since February 12 of 2004 and in Iraq
within a Polish division since January 25 of 2005.

About 400 Armenian servicemen participated in these operations. Armenia
plans to increase the quantity of its peacekeepers in international
peacekeeping missions and to send doctors, combat engineers and
interpreters to Afghanistan.