NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen visit to Armenia delays

Yerevan, September 5, Armenpress: The Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Anders Fogh Rasmussen will visit Armenia with several hours delay and the planned meetings will take place on September 6, as Armenpress was informed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.

As was earlier reported by Armenpress, the NATO Secretary General will meet the President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduard Nalbandyan and the Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan.

Armenia ARF Youth and Student Unions are going to meet the NATO Secretary General with protest actions. More than 1000 members of the Yerevan State University’s “Young Students’ Union” Organization will also protest against Rasmussen, who will meet the professors’ staff of the University on September 6. The NATO Secretary General’s silence about the Ramil Safarov’s extradition, who assassinated Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan in 2004 during NATO English language courses, raised a storm of protest in Armenia. The young appeal to the military alliance to come forth with clear stance, in the academic center of which the crime had been committed.

Armenia and NATO cooperate actively in the fields of democratic, institutional and military reforms, and the practical relations comprise many other spectors, including peacekeeping missions. Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) indicates Armenia-NATO cooperation program as well as comprises a wide range of reforms. Armenia wants to deepen the political and practical cooperation with NATO, yet in accordance to official stance does not seek to join NATO.

At the meeting hosted in NATO headquarters on March 6 2012 Rasmussen thanked Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan for military contribution to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF).