ARMENIAN FORMER FOREIGN MINISTER: WE HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE. CHOOSING IS NOT A CHOICE

arminfo
2008-08-29 15:48:00

ArmInfo. Armenia should be more active and demonstrate its
non-partisanship to the conflict around South Ossetia, Armenian former
foreign minister Vardan Oskanyan said in an interview with Azg daily.

‘In other words, Armenia would have clearly said to all that it is
not going to choose between friends, that if Russia is our strategic
partner, Georgia is our natural partner. Both are of existential
importance to us. If in the past we used the policy of complementarity
to maintain and nurture relations with both the West and Russia, now
the situation is at our door and that need is even more acute. Now,
we must use enhanced complementarity, more audacious and blunt,
to openly and actively promote relations with all. We have no other
choice. Choosing is not a choice’, – Oskanyan said.

Asked if Russia’s role will change in the region, Oskanyan replied
of course it will and the region will not be the same.’It is the
political relationship that will be evolving between Russia and the
West that is of utmost concern to us. This relationship has been
badly damaged. The scars that are sure to remain will make future
cooperation or collaboration even more complicated. Worse, there is the
fear that there may be a return to Cold War partisanship. Even after
the honeymoon ended, Russia-West relations remained respectful. To say
that the disappearance of such a tolerant environment will adversely
affect Armenia and the region is a great understatement. East-West
tensions will be reflected in the Georgia-Russia relationship, by
proxy. That means Armenia will have to not just adhere to its policy
of complementarity, but as I said, will have to practice enhanced,
more audacious complementarity in order to assure our own, unique
role in this new configuration’, – Oskanyan said.