If Russia has influence in Armenia-NATO relations, however, RA Government shapes its relations with NATO: William Lahue

Interview with William Lahue, Head of NATO Liaison Office in the South Caucasus.

Mr. Lahue, results of Warsaw NATO Summit have been much discussed recently. On account of NATO’s toughened policy towards Russia, which also presupposes some countersteps by Russia, how will Russia-NATO relations develop?

NATO member countries, NATO partners have rather hard position regarding Russia’s initiated hostile activities against its neighbors. It particularly refers Ukraine. NATO has tough position regarding its policy, according to which, any European country has a sovereign right to choose its defensive partners within its foreign policy. NATO is decisive in this issue. Thus, future of NATO-Russia relations depends on the very resources and from the fact, whether Russians will adopt a cooperative attitude or proper attitude towards NATO will be maintained, which comes yet from the Soviet years, and it’s not only hostility towards NATO, but an aggressive behavior towards its immediate neighbors, which is not acceptable for the Western community.

Which strategic changes have been recorded in NATO-Russia relations after the Summit? How will those changes be reflected on the South Caucasus?

NATO member countries agreed to increase importance of the Black Sea basin during the summit. NATO member countries, allies also made a decision to cooperate towards the direction of strengthening the security of the member countries in the Black Sea region. The most important change is that the members of the ally agreed, that we should strengthen our collective security, raise the capabilities to protect ourselves, have more budget allocations for the defense field, and higher defensiveness.

This is an important result, and we realized, lack of capabilities of separate members shouldn’t be ignored any more. This is a result of the collapse of the USSR, and they thought, one shouldn’t concern over the challenges and threats coming from the Western direction, as the USSR doesn’t exist. Russia’s aggressive operations against Ukraine violated security perception of NATO member countries. This is a reasoned change.

NATO has stabile relations with all the three South Caucasus countries—Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. NATO’s frames in relations with these countries haven’t changed, there is another level in the direction of Georgia, as the latter is a candidate for NATOs membership, and NATO-Georgia basic package exists. Some NATO member countries assumed to provide advisors for Georgia’s Defense Ministry. We anticipate, that this will help the Defense Ministry to transform itself, become a more productive organization, which obviously raises country’s defense and supports Georgia’s integration efforts. As you know, Georgia has a rather big mission of soldiers in Afghanistan, they’re already in NATO’s quick response forces. NATO’s this commitment helps them to easily integrate. These steps support Georgia as a future NATO member country.

Don’t you have concerns within response steps, that hot spots will be established in Ukraine, NK, as representatives of the expert community think, that the reply may come from this direction and its prerequisites are already available?

I can’t do suppositions in this issue. NATO member countries and partners monitor the situation in these regions to attentively understand what may happen in the reality and how these developments refer our partners and our ally members. All the decisions made regarding those potential steps are implemented internally and are based on stabile decision of member countries.

David Shahnazaryan, Senior Analyst at Regional Studies Center, has concerns, that Russia will block Armenia-NATO relations. What do you think of this?

Mr. Shahnazaryan is an expert, he’s experienced, it’s his perception of the situation. As a NATO representative I can’t do suppositions on Russia-Armenia relations. Armenia’s Government shapes its relations with NATO. If Russia has or hasn’t influence in this issue, the decision is again up to the Armenian society and the Government, and not that of NATO.