Eastern Partnership will enable Armenia to establish closer ties with EuropeMay 6, 2009 - 16:04 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - With this initiative, EU Eastern Partnership seeks stable and reliable neighborhood with six countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, RA Deputy Foreign Minister Karine Kazinyan told a news conference today. "By proposing such initiative EU seeks to establish partnership with neighbor states. It's one more step towards EU membership," she stressed, noting at the same time that Eastern Partnership member states should realize that partnership does not imply membership to EU. "Associate membership agreement will be signed only with countries showing maximum progress towards initiative implementation," Karine Kazinyan said.According to her, Eastern Partnership envisages cooperation not only in bilateral, but also in multilateral format. "The initiative aims to establish cooperation among member states, despite the existing conflicts. The countries are offered cooperation and partnership," Mrs. Kazinyan said, adding that Armenia views the initiative as cooperation aimed at establishing closer ties with Europe. She didn't rule out the possibility of non-member states' integration to the project. "Before 2013, EU will allocate about 600 million Euros. Eastern Partnership summits will be held once or twice a year and member states' Foreign Ministers will meet once per year," she reported. Eastern Partnership is due for May 7 in Prague. Armenia will be represented in person of President Serzh Sargsyan Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |