http://abc.az/eng/news_19_11_2009_40367.html
Azerbaijan Business Center November 19, 2009 Azerbaijan demands security guarantees from NATO Baku: Eurasian states' partnerships with NATO become more and more dangerous business. At today’s Baku conference “NATO’s New Strategic Concept: Contribution to the Debate from Partners” deputy foreign minister Araz Azimov of Azerbaijan said that NATO should ensure security guarantees for partner countries. “I offer the signing of bilateral agreements between NATO and partner countries to cover security guarantees for partner countries along with the responsibility and commitments of the parties,” Azimov claimed. In his opinion, otherwise it will be fraught with bad consequences for NATO architecture in the future. “The countries that express a desire to enter into NATO encounter a certain jeopardy,” Azimov said. As an example, he brought up events in Georgia last August. “Yes, we (partner countries) are important for NATO in general for the security architecture of the Euro-Atlantic area. Today Azerbaijan’s borders are the borders of Europe,” the deputy minister claimed. He said that there was concern with the fact that the security of such countries as Azerbaijan was under question. “Such concerns relate not only to conflicts, but also strategic plans as a whole. We should take into account that partnership with NATO is not a guarantee of our security,” Azimov said. According to the deputy minister, the efficiency of the decision making mechanism in NATO on the basis of consensus has outlived its usefulness and can lead to a split-up in the alliance itself. =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato Blog site: http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/ To subscribe, send an e-mail to: [email protected] or [email protected] Daily digest option available. ==============================
