Baltic News Service
April 7, 2005
LITHUANIA TO ACCEPT MORE ARMENIAN OFFICERS AS STUDENTS
YEREVAN/VILNIUS
Armenia’s officers will pursue studies at the captain course at the
Lithuanian Military Academy in future as well, as stipulated in the
agreement signed in Yerevan by Lithuania’s Defense Minister Gediminas
Kirkilas, who is staying on an official visit in Armenia, and
Armenia’s Defense Minister Serzh Sargisian.
Since 2003, there have been 4 Armenian officers attending the captain
course at the LMA.
Undersecratary of the Defense Ministry Renatas Norkus told BNS on
Thursday that another 4 Armenian officers are scheduled to attend the
course in Vilnius this year.
INTERFAX has reported that Sargisian emphasized during a press
conference on Wednesday that Armenia had chosen the path of EU
integration and was striving towards closer cooperation with NATO,
but would maintain strong ties with the Collective Security Treaty
Organization that unites the CIS countries.
In his turn, Kirkilas accentuated that Lithuania was in position to
support Armenia’s integration into European structures and NATO.
“Armenia is being more and more precise in defining its priorities.
We welcome Armenia’s active integration into European and
euro-Atlantic structures and hail Armenia’s decision to allocate its
troops to the operation in Iraq,” Kirkilas said.
It it is for several years now that Lithuania’s Defense Ministry has
been pursuing an initiative targeted at sharing the Baltic states’s
experience in the military field — armed forces modernization,
development of a legal framework — with South Caucasus countries.
In addition to the LMA’s captain course, Lithuania subsidizes the
studies of one Armenian officer at the Baltic Defense College in
Tartu, Estonia.
Armenia has been involved in the Partnership for Peace program since
1994.
Vilnius newsroom, +370 5 2681508, [email protected]