US thanks Armenia for contributing to Afghanistan, Kosovo missions

PanARMENIAN.Net - US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Celeste Wallander commented on Armenia- US cooperation in defence sector in an interview to Armenian Defence Ministry’s Zinuzh program.

As Ms. Wallander stated, it is important to understand the broad range of areas of cooperation between US and Armenian Ministry of Defence. “The US works with the Ministry of Defence of Armenia on its modernization and its objectives. These objectives are clearly stated in the strategic defence review, which is a comprehensive document which was worked out within the whole government of Armenia, and so it’s a reflection of national priorities.”

“We are very privileged to be able to support the Ministry of Defence as it now moves towards implementing those priorities in professional development of officer corps and in particular NCO. So this is something exciting for us- a new area to work with the ministry of defence on that area,” Ms. Wallander noted.

Commenting on tripling of Armenia’s contribution to ISAF and the mentor and liason mission to be fulfilled by 5 Armenain officers, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State said, “we are proud to be able to say that the 5 officers have attended American military education courses. We feel particularly excited to know that they are able to use that experience in that work with American military now in their mission in Afghanistan , which of course you know is of very high priority for the US.”

“President Obama made very clear that the US is very committed and continues be committed to providing stability and security by supporting the development of the Afghan security forces . So we are very grateful to the Ministry of Defence for making that commitment and contributing to that mission. More broadly also we have been working with the MoD in developing the institutional development of Armenia’s capability to contribute international missions through its peacekeeping brigade.

So a lot of our cooperation activities which total in value for this year about a little over 12 million US dollars in ther area of defence and security cooperation, a lot of those activities focus on training and planning, but also providing equipment, and working with the Armenian peace keeping brigade so that they are able to be ready to contribute not just to the ISAF missions but other missions as well.

It is very important for people to remember, that Armenians are also serving in Kosovo as part to KFOR mission, we tend to forget about it, because it’s so successful, but I think it’s impotant for everyone to understand that the reason it is successful is because so many partners have been willing to be there and contribute to htis postconflict situation. So we are grateful for that support as well.

We have many things to talk about , we have many things to be working on in the coming year. We talked a little bit alsotoday about htat planning, but I am very grateful for such a broad area of cooperation and we look forward to continuing to work with the MoD,” Ms. Wallander stressed.