President attends meeting of heads of State and government of nations involved in International Security Assistance Forces in Afghanistan

In Newport town of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, President Serzh Sargsyan attended the meeting of heads of State and government of NATO-member States and nations involved in International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan / ISAF /, which was held on the margins of the upcoming NATO summit.

Held in a NATO-ISAF format, the concluding gathering summed up the results of ISAF’s Afghanistan mission and outlined the areas and objectives of the new Resolute Support mission.

Serzh Sargsyan delivered a speech, in which he greeted David Cameron, the Prime Minister of Great Britain which is the host country, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, as well as the meeting participants, including the Afghan partners.

“As a NATO partner and a State contributing to safeguarding international security, Armenia has engaged with the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan since February 2010; a year later, in July 2011 it tripled its contingent. In the course of the past four and a half years, the Armenian peacekeepers have gained an invaluable experience in the framework of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

I would especially highlight here the fruitful cooperation Armenia has enjoyed with Germany, which doubtless can be viewed as an instance of a best practice and exemplary cooperation between a NATO member and a partner State,” President Serzh Sargsyan said.

Serzh Sargsyan underscored that those in Armenia appreciate the value of both peace and security. According to the Armenian President, our country struggles for both of them almost every day. “Tomorrow here, in this same hall a document will be adopted that will be related to the security of my people and peace in our region.

There are two options. Either it will adopt the language of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is the only specialized international structure dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, a language that was proposed and supported by the Co-Chair countries that are represented here by France and the United States of America, or upon the lobbying of another member State it will pass again with an aim to save the face of our tyrant neighbor vis-a-vis his own people. Believe me it will not lead to any positive results.

Either the common sense and the strive for peace will have the upper hand, or the silent encouragement of xenophobia will go deepening, the war rhetoric and the deadly provocations, so easily provoked by Azerbaijan, which does not care about its soldiers’ lives and gets enthusiastic with papers like that, will continue ahead,” Serzh Sargsyan emphasized.