Armenia's Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan presented to parliament the bill on ratifying the agreement on establishing the framework for Armenia’s Participation in the EU’s Crisis Management Operations.
Kostanyan stressed the agreement’s importance in terms of deepening the cooperation between Armenia and the EU.
The document provides an opportunity to make the best use of the EU's experience and expertise in the field of crisis management, he said at the plenary session.
Kostanyan emphasized that security and defense cooperation in Armenia-EU relations is steadily expanding. "In fact, it is within the framework of this cooperation that the European Union’s monitoring mission [EUMA] has been deployed in Armenia. Armenia wants to be not only a consumer of security but also to support the security measures being implemented by our European partners," he noted. The Deputy Minister stated that the EU currently operates about 20 such missions, the mandates of which are based on UN Security Council resolutions or are carried out at the invitation of host countries, as was the case with Armenia.
The Deputy FM also clarified the process, noting that the agreement stipulates that the EU sends an official invitation, after which Armenia decides whether to accept participation or not. "Naturally, as with any political process, preliminary consultations are also held here. And the Republic of Armenia, through informal discussions with its European partners, has the opportunity to express which missions it might be interested in participating in," Kostanyan concluded.
