Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian Minister of Defense Vigen Sargsyan said that Armenia’s relations with NATO "will never go against interests of our strategic alliance with Russia”.

“NATO implements a number of peacekeeping operations, sanctioned by UN. It is very important and helpful for Armenia to have knowledge and experience in such multinational peacekeeping operations. 

On the one hand, this helps to form our own peacekeeping capabilities, have staff with expertise of combat duty in different real conditions, forming at the same time fuller picture and understanding of the international peacekeeping system, also taking into account current conflicts in this region. So I do not think that there should be any surprise or secret regarding this issue.

In addition, we have an individual program of partnership with NATO. This program is aimed first of all at developing system of democratic control over the armed forces, fostering the base of parliamentary form of governance, like in many NATO member states. We implement a number of projects, which facilitate strengthening of our armed forces, and I am convinced that this does not hinder interests of our allies,” Defense Minister said in an interview to RIA Novosti (in Russian).