December 13, 2001 - 22:37 AMT
PENTAGON HEAD «INTENDS TO THANK ARMENIAN LEADERSHIP FOR SUPPORT TO CARRY OUT ANTI-TERRORIST OPERATION PERSONALLY»
As we have informed, the USA defense minister will arrive in Yerevan on an official visit on Saturday. A Pentagon source has informed the «Arminfo» correspondent the US defense minister intends to thank Armenian leadership for the support in the carrying out the anti-terrorist operation. The source has also informed, with his visit, Ramsfild would like to show the importance that Washington attaches to the military cooperation with Yerevan. Donald Ramsfild will have meetings with President Robert Kocharyan and defense minister Serge Sarkisyan, who because of that delayed his visit to Cyprus that was planned earlier. On completion of his visit, the US defense minister will have ten-minute briefing for Armenian journalists. The Pentagon head will arrive in Yerevan from Baku in the afternoon. He will stay in Yerevan for several hours and then he will leave for Tbilisi and after that to Tashkent. At the meetings with Armenian leadership two main issues will be discussed. First of all, it is the Armenia-US cooperation in the struggle against international terrorism. The participants of the meetings will also discuss the perspectives of the development of Armenian-American cooperation in the military sphere.