Views from Brussels: CSTO membership is not an obstacle to development of relations with NATO

Membership of CSTO, EU or any other organizations for regional cooperation is not an obstacle to the development of partner relations with NATO, James Appathurai, the NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, told a news conference organized by the Region Research Center.

Each of the country in the South Caucasus has chosen its own security policy and NATO respects their choice. Regional cooperation brings much economic and strategic benefit to the South Caucasus. In this light, he said, NATO can provide a basis for closer cooperation between Armenia and Georgia or Georgia and Azerbaijan. Appathurai said NATO partnership with every country is individual and supported by 28 allies of NATO, including Turkey. These relations in no way depend on NATO's relations with Russia, and Appathurai sees no direct threat to NATO's relations with the South Caucasus countries from the strain in the Turkey-Russia ties. 

"Of course, we help Turkey to protect its sovereignty and airspace like we would do for any other ally," he said. The allies also supported Turkey when the Russian warplane was shot down after entering its airspace.  At the same time, he said, that incident necessitates more measures to reduce risks and launch discussion between Ankara and Moscow to verify all the circumstances and prevent such incidents in the future.  Diplomacy must prevail, James Appathurai said.