Armenia is the only state actively cooperating with both NATO and CSTO, Jamie Shea says

ArmInfo. Armenia is the only state actively cooperating both with NATO and CSTO, Deputy Assistant of NATO Secretary General Jamie Shea stated at the Yerevan State University on November 18 within NATO Days in Armenia.

According to him the organization does not have single formula of cooperation with all its partners and each of them is free to choose the format of cooperation. We have never put "either, or" question squarely.  It is important to be able to establish multi-faceted cooperation. Armenia demonstrates vividly a model of successful cooperation both with NATO and Russia, the Deputy Assistant of NATO Secretary General noted. At the same time he added that holding NATO Days helped to outline new areas for cooperation between Armenia and NATO.

At the same time talking about the priorities and goals of the organization Shea emphasized that currently it focuses on two issues: collective security and crisis management. We were shocked when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 as we supposed that such methods became history. For 20 years we have been trying to develop partner relations with Russia, which was open for cooperation as never before. That is why Russia's such a behavior was at least strange for us, Shea stated.

The Deputy Assistant Secretary General noted that 450 thousand Russian troops are deployed on the border with NATO, besides Russia makes harsh statements posing threat to security of the organization's allies.  We tried to respond to these statements maximally adequately and a decision was taken to expand our presence in Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland, where four NATO battalions will be deployed. We condemn Russia's behavior but I want to say that this is not resumption of the cold war these are just security measures. We do not want to escalate the situation we are just trying to ensure our security using minimal amount of forces, Shea noted.

At the same time he complained that the Russian side does not present the plan of its military drills as NATO does. However, he is convinced that Russia itself first of all suffers from such actions. He also stressed the importance of partner cooperation in the issue of solving international problems.