NATO’s relations with partners are more important than ever

Head of Political Affairs of Germany’s Delegation to NATO Guido Hildner said in Yerevan that the Alliance’s relations with the partner states are currently more important than ever.

Guido Hildner said this addressing a speech at “NATO-Armenia Cooperation: New Goals and Prospects” conference.

“NATO currently has to respond to a number of crises and threats in various regions. The changing security environment requires new approaches from NATO in terms of ensuring Euro-Atlantic safety. The upcoming Warsaw Summit will reconfirm that NATO is the most powerful military alliance in terms of ensuring collective security and defense and will remain as such”, noted Guido Hildner.

According to him, it means for NATO partners including Armenia that partners are now more important than ever.

“Partnership should be a two-way road based on mutual interests”, said the German diplomat.

In his turn, Steffen Elgersma, representative of NATO International Staff, noted in his speech that despite the progress in Armenia-NATO political relations, the dialogue with the alliance “has become less dynamic”.

He has pointed out that mutual visits and meetings of high-ranking delegations have reduced recently.

“I have been lately asked which are the “red lines” in NATO-Armenia collaboration. I don’t see “red lines”. It’s a partnership which is led by Armenia and it defines the goals, speed and direction of the cooperation”, said Steffen Elgersma.

According to the NATO representative, the alliance is willing to see activation of the political dialogue with Armenia.