ARMENIA SAYS NO PLANS TO JOIN NATO, BUT READY FOR COOPERATION
Xinhua General News Service, China
March 12, 2007 Monday 3:30 PM EST
Armenia’s foreign minister said on Monday his country does not plan
to join NATO but will cooperate with the alliance, the Interfax news
agency reported.
"We are carefully watching the South Caucasus countries, and by having
a dialogue with NATO we are trying to achieve overall security in the
region," the minister, Vardan Oskanyan, said at the opening ceremony
of the NATO information center in the capital Yerevan.
However, he said, Armenia is not going to join the alliance. "I would
like to stress once again that this issue is not on the agenda of
Armenia’s foreign policy," he said.
Oskanyan said Armenia is cooperating very actively with the alliance
under the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP).
"The IPAP is quite a serious document, and we focus on it in working
with NATO," he said.
Armenia and NATO agreed on the IPAP in December 2005. The nation’s
Caucasus neighbors Azerbaijan and Georgia have also developed IPAPs
with the alliance.