Alexander Margarov: The declaration of the NATO summit in Lisbon cannot have any negative impact on Armenia

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS: The formulations fixed in the declaration of the NATO summit in Lisbon cannot have any negative impact on Armenia, Director of the Armenian branch of the Institute of CIS Countries, political scientist Alexander Margarov said today at a meeting with journalists, adding that the reason of suchlike statement is that Armenia or Azerbaijan do not participate in the process of adopting decisions in NATO.

“During the Lisbon summit the statement of NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is interesting to us, according to which NATO does not see itself in regulation process of the NK conflict,” the political scientist said, stressing that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, not leaving for Lisbon, once again reconfirmed Armenia’s faithfulness to the NK issue regulation in the format of OSCE Minsk group. In Mr. Margarov’s opinion, in this way Armenia showed that it is able to implement independent foreign policy.

Not agreeing with this viewpoint, expert, journalist Tatul Hakobyan noted that Armenia must participate in all high-class summits to move forward the Armenian viewpoint there. “Nevertheless, we cannot say that Armenia did not participate in the summit, just the participation was not on president’s level,” Mr. Hakobyan said.

Mr. Margarov also noted that the Lisbon summit was important for Armenia in the sense of regional developments as well. “This summit showed that the doors of NATO are open for Georgia and Ukraine,” the political scientist stressed, adding that it may bring to interesting developments in the region.