NATO IS A “PARTNER” OF ARMENIA

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It is upon Armenia to decide how to cooperate with NATO. “NATO doesn’t force any country to become its member and doesn’t hamper its cooperation with other countries,” claimed Robert Simmons, special envoy of the NATO Secretary General on South Caucasian affairs during today’s press release.

Mr. Simmons answered various questions within half an hour and repeated his above mentioned words several times. NATO is ready to support Armenia in taking out the Russian military bases but “it is upon the country to decide how long to keep them in its territory.” It is upon Robert Kocharyan to participate in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly or not. If NA Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan resigns for his positive attitude towards the NATO, it is not upon Mr. Simmons to give his evaluation of the matter either, “In any country people may have diversity of opinions and they are free to express them, but the Armenian Government decides its strategy itself.” Simmons maintains that the NATO and Armenia are “partners” at present, and such relations are profitable for the two sides. In the framework of “partner relationship” they implement the program of Individual partnership. The NATO representative registered positive progress in the course of 6-month implementation.

The real evaluation will be given during the NATO session which will be held on June 14. RA Foreign Minister and Defense Minister will also participate in the session. By the way, Robert Simmons expressed his hesitation on the claims of the RA officials that the RA army will meet the NATO criteria in 2015. “it is not a university where one has to fix a deadline,” said Mr. Simmons noting that there are the NATO member countries which haven’t yet finished the reforms of the defense and security fields.

While referring to the Karabakh conflict Robert Simmons stated that NATO is not directly engaged in it but it support the OSCE Minsk group. As for settlement of the peacekeeping forces of the NATO member countries in the “occupied lands,” Simmons claims that it will be probable only in case Armenia and Azerbaijan come to an agreement on this score. By the way, Mr. Simmons didn’t understand and didn’t want to make accurate what the Armenian journalist meant by saying “occupied lands.” Simmons only urged that NATO doesn’t mingle with the affairs of its member countries, let us take Turkey and Armenia for instance, and leaves it for the member countries to settle their affairs themselves.