Analyst: Participation of Armenia in NATO trainings evidences the need to deepen cooperation with West in security sphere
ArmInfo. Participation of Armenia in NATO trainings taking place in Georgia is dictated by the need to deepen cooperation with the West in the field of security. The director of Center for Regional Studies Richard Kirakosyan expressed this opinion to ArmInfo.
The NATO trainings Noble Partner 2017 Worthy Partner - 2017, which was held on the Vaziani training ground in Georgia, was launched on July 30 and will end on August 13. A total of 3,000 military personnel from 8 countries came to the exercise: five NATO countries: the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Slovenia, Turkey and three allied countries: Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia. About 1,600 American, as well as 800 Georgian servicemen take part in the exercises. The Armenian Armed Forces are represented on Noble Partner 2017 by a platoon of 40 people. The exercise was visited by US Vice President Michael Pence.
"Yerevan needs to diversify sources, security partners, not relying as a strategic partner in this issue exclusively on Moscow," he said.
According to the analyst, periodic participation in NATO multinational exercises is only a small part of the existing fairly thorough trend, expressed in the participation of the Armenian Armed Forces in peacekeeping missions under the auspices of NATO in Kosovo and Afghanistan.
The analyst believes that the deployment of only Russian military base in the region of CSTO member does not affect the schedule of the republic's participation in NATO exercises. In turn, for the West NATO military exercises in Georgia are a way of symbolic demonstration of their own determination to ensure security, including in the South Caucasus.