Armenia and NATO Edging Closer
By Ara Tadevosian in Yerevan (CRS No. 291, 16-Jun-05)
Director of the Armenian news agency Mediamax in Yerevan.
[...]
At a meeting in Brussels on June 10, Sarkisian formally presented de Hoop Scheffer with his country’s so-called Individual Partnership Action Plan, IPAP, as well as a personal letter from President Robert Kocharian.
The event marked a breakthrough in relations between Armenia and NATO, which were once quite frosty. It also lays out many new obligations on Yerevan, which NATO will now monitor very closely.
[...]
“If it turns out that Georgia and Azerbaijan eventually become members of NATO and Armenia does not, then obviously this will lead to new lines of division in the Caucasus,” Armenian foreign minister Vardan Oskanian said last year.
[...]
But many Armenians remain deeply suspicious of NATO, of which Armenia’s historical enemy Turkey is a member, and continue to regard Russia as a more reliable ally.[...].
[...]
Another problem facing Armenia is that it now finds itself in the tricky position of being both a member of the Russian-led Collective Security Pact of the Commonwealth of Independent States and a growing friend of NATO.
[...]
American political analyst Ronald Asmus, one of the chief advocates of NATO’s eastern expansion, told IWPR that the alliance, for its part, “needs to try to pursue a dual-track strategy where it expands its outreach to this region and tries to deepen its cooperation with Moscow in parallel. It is clearly in our as well as Armenia’s interest that we succeed in doing so”.
[...]
Ultimately, the strategic choice about whether to apply for NATO membership will be in the hands of the successful candidate in the next round of presidential elections in 2008.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Director of the Armenian news agency Mediamax in Yerevan.
[...]
At a meeting in Brussels on June 10, Sarkisian formally presented de Hoop Scheffer with his country’s so-called Individual Partnership Action Plan, IPAP, as well as a personal letter from President Robert Kocharian.
The event marked a breakthrough in relations between Armenia and NATO, which were once quite frosty. It also lays out many new obligations on Yerevan, which NATO will now monitor very closely.
[...]
“If it turns out that Georgia and Azerbaijan eventually become members of NATO and Armenia does not, then obviously this will lead to new lines of division in the Caucasus,” Armenian foreign minister Vardan Oskanian said last year.
[...]
But many Armenians remain deeply suspicious of NATO, of which Armenia’s historical enemy Turkey is a member, and continue to regard Russia as a more reliable ally.[...].
[...]
Another problem facing Armenia is that it now finds itself in the tricky position of being both a member of the Russian-led Collective Security Pact of the Commonwealth of Independent States and a growing friend of NATO.
[...]
American political analyst Ronald Asmus, one of the chief advocates of NATO’s eastern expansion, told IWPR that the alliance, for its part, “needs to try to pursue a dual-track strategy where it expands its outreach to this region and tries to deepen its cooperation with Moscow in parallel. It is clearly in our as well as Armenia’s interest that we succeed in doing so”.
[...]
Ultimately, the strategic choice about whether to apply for NATO membership will be in the hands of the successful candidate in the next round of presidential elections in 2008.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 6:51 AM
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