Simmons: Military Presence of Russia in Armenia Affair of the Two States

PanARMENIAN.Net - Military presence of a country on the territory of another is the affair of the two states. NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the South Caucasus and Central Asia Robert Simmons stated it addressing a round table organized by Center for Strategic Analysis Spectrum in Yerevan today. In his words, when Georgia refused from Russian military presence, the NATO and OSCE assisted in the question of withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia's territory. Armenia is agree with Russia's military presence and if Yerevan changes its attitude to the issue, the NATO will respectively provide assistance, R. Simmons remarked. The Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) does not indicate the quantitative aspect of the armed forces, merely providing for budget planning of the defense field, the NATO SecGen's Special Representative emphasized.



Speaking of the NATO-Russia relations, Robert Simmons stated the Alliance does not consider Russia's proposal on arranging cooperation with the CSTO acceptable. In his words, the NATO approach provides for development of individual and direct cooperation with partners, including CSTO member states within the IPAP framework.