Armenia: NATO and CSTO Likely to Come Face to Face

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's envoy to the South Caucasus, Robert Simmons, asserted on November 6 that NATO is not jockeying over Armenia with its Moscow-led counterweight, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

Speaking at a news conference in Yerevan, Simmons said that NATO does not see a problem in Russian border guards policing Armenia's border with NATO member Turkey, the Regnum news agency reported. The only CSTO member in the South Caucasus, Armenia cooperates closely with Moscow in security and defense matters. Proposed plans to open the Armenian-Turkish border would bring NATO and Russia into immediate contact via the border guards on Armenia's Turkish border.

Simmons said that Armenia is welcome to cooperate with both NATO and CSTO, according to the Regnum report. He added that next year Yerevan will send 30 servicemen to Afghanistan to assist the NATO campaign there.