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.