ARMENIA NOT TO JOIN NATO, EU: PRESIDENT
Xinhua, China
2006-04-24 18:24:13
April 24 2006
MOSCOW, April 24 (Xinhua) — Armenia is not going to join NATO and
the European Union (EU), Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said
Monday in an interview with local newspaper Golos Armenii.
“The membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)
and the high level of military-technical cooperation with Russia solve
the task of ensuring the country’s security in a sufficient degree,”
Kocharyan said.
Therefore, Armenia will not join NATO, the Armehian president said. The
member states of the CSTO include Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Kocharyan said that the “whole law base of the Armenian-Russian
relations in the military-technical sphere has been ratified by the
republic’s parliament.”
“Within the framework of the individual partnership program, Armenia is
actively broadening the cooperation with the North Atlantic alliance
as a key European security organization. We hope for fruitful
cooperation, especially in the reform of Armenia’s armed forces,
and in the peacekeeping activity,” Kocharyan said.
The president said, “at present, Armenia is preparing for closer
cooperation with the European Union within the framework of the New
Neighborhood Policy, but we do not formulate the task of joining the
European Union.”
“Euro-Atlantic ambitions of Armenia are weighed, realistic, positively
seen by European structures, and do not create problems in the
relations with Russia,” he said.
“We equally articulate our stance in Moscow, Brussels and Washington,”
the president said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
