GEORGIA’S JOINING NATO NOT TO AFFECT ARMENIA’S DEFENSE CAPACITY: ANALYST
ArmInfo
2008-10-15 11:20:00
ArmInfo. Georgia’s joining NATO will not drastically affect the
defense capacity of our country, analyst of the Strategic Analysis
Center "Spectrum" Sergey Sarkisyan told ArmInfo.
‘First, I would not hurry with the conclusion that Georgia is already
in NATO. Second, neither CSTO nor Armenia are going to make a war
with NATO. As for the issues of transit of the Armenian military
cargo through Georgia’s territory, they are quite solvable with NATO
member-states as well, while change of the political alignment in
the region in this case is a separate issue’, the analyst said.
At the same time, Sarkisyan said that Armenia needs to tighten
good neighbourly relations with Georgia. ‘Fulfillment of mutually
beneficial projects, and only the economic ones, should not depend
on the circumstance that someone considers our country as pro-Russian
and Georgia – pro-American’, the analyst resumed.
Armenia is member of CSTO, created on the basis of the Collective
Security Treaty, from its signing day – May 15, 1992, the Treaty is
automatically prolonged every five years. Armenia’s cooperation with
NATO is carried out within the frames of Armenia- NATO Individual
Partnership Programme (IPAP) and the ‘Partnership for Peace’
programme. IPAP programme is divided into two stages: the first stage
has been implemented since January, 2006.