NATO Exerts Big Effort to Prevent Escalation of Karabakh Conflict

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia has fixed considerable progress in cooperation with NATO, Romualdas Razuks, NATO Officer-Coordinator for South Caucasus stated during the "Security in the South Caucasus" Rose-Roth NATO PA seminar that started October 6 in Yerevan. He reminded that the South Caucasus has been announced a priority zone for NATO and the implementation of the Individual Partnership Action Plan in the states of the region is the evidence of it. In his words in autumn 2005 the plans will be discussed and the elaboration process will be completed by the end of the current year. The NATO Officer noted that the level of cooperation mostly depends on the internal processes in the states of the region. He stressed that the IPAP provides for conformity of the partner Armed Forces with the NATO standards. In this view, representative of the Russian delegation Victor Ozerov expressed opinion that urging the partners to bring the military and technical basis to the NATO standards, the "Alliance as if artificially incites them to retrofitting and purchase of armament from the NATO member-states." When touching upon the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement Mr. Razuks noted that however the organization exerts every effort to prevent the escalation of the conflict and resumption of hostilities. He also informed that NATO is going to open a scientific and technical center in Armenia, reported IA Regnum.