NATO DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL WILL VISIT ARMENIA TOMORROW

PanARMENIAN.Net - 25.07.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. The deputy Secretary General of NATO on political affairs, Ambassador Dr. Klaus-Peter Klaiber will arrive tomorrow in Armenia for a three-day visit.

As a source in the ministry of foreign affairs of Armenia informed MEDIAMAX, Klaiber will make preparations for the visit of the NATO Secretary General George Robertson to Armenia, which is to take place in autumn 2000. Klaiber will hold meetings with the foreign minister of Armenia Vardan Oskanian, minister of defense Serzh Sarkisian, other officials.

In March 2000 the meeting of the deputy foreign minister of Armenia Ruben Shugarian and Klaus-Peter Klaiber took place in Brussels. In the course of the meeting Shugarian paid special attention to the inadmissibility of the fact of the blockade of Armenia by Turkey, which, according to him, makes difficult the cooperation on Armenia-NATO level, taking into account the membership of Turkey in the North-Atlantic alliance. In fact, declared Ruben Shugarian, "not only the Armenian-Turkish border is closed, but the border of Armenia with NATO as well".

This year Armenia has greatly activated its relations with NATO. "We can state that our cooperation with NATO is passive, as compared to the relations of the other former Soviet republics with the alliance", said in the interview to MEDIAMAX in April 2000 the spokesman of the ministry of foreign affairs of Armenia Ara Papian. "NATO is a powerful structure, and it must be taken into consideration. It must be mentioned that the development of Armenia-NATO cooperation is not directed against any state", noted Ara Papian. -0-