Dear Colleagues,

According to the well established tradition, I am glad to welcome you on our January’s meeting. Today I will briefly introduce you to the main military-political developments and the defence policy implemented by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Republic of Armenia (RA) throughout 2009.

Assessment of the Security Environment

First of all I would like to point out that the changes in the international security environment have direct influence on Armenia and its neighbourhood. The development of the security environment in the South Caucasus continue to be characterised by instability, mistrust, collision of contradictory interests, different perceptions about security, provocation of ethnic conflicts and demonstrations of arms race.

On the political-military level, the main factors that influenced the security environment of Armenia in 2009 were the process of regulation of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the process of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, militarization policy realized by Azerbaijan and strive for the use of force or threatening to do so by the latter. Nevertheless, in general I could state that despite the implementation of foreign policy of initiation by RA in all these issues, they have not resulted in any tangible outcomes and have not eased the political-military tension. On the contrary, unnecessary delays in the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, the intolerant position and the militaristic policy of Azerbaijan regarding the regulation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have reduced Armenia’s anticipation of achieving positive developments in the region. I think this should be a matter of concern not only for the regional countries, but also for the international community. As a positive achievement of the year I can identify the deal of attention of the international community given on the issues of the region. Joint efforts of the international community have reduced the opportunities of the regional countries to manoeuvre in their foreign policy, pushing them towards the adoption of more realist policy. This makes us hopeful that in 2010 we will have achievements in this direction. The Defence Policy of Republic of Armenia Taking into consideration the above mentioned circumstances, it was time for the RA to adopt new appropriate approaches in the fields of security and defence. The defence policy implemented by the MoD of RA in 2009 was significantly aimed towards strengthening the political-military positions, development of defence abilities and international integration of the Armed Forces. For this end the tendency of the expansion of the military cooperation’s continued not only with the CSTO and NATO, which have vital importance for us, but also with the members of those organizations and with other partners of Armenia. Grounds have been established for geographical expansion of international military cooperation. 1. Defence Reforms The works on the Strategic Defence Review have been carried out successfully. In January 2009 the document on the Assessment of the security and threat environment of RA that was developed during the first phase of the SDR was presented to the President of RA. The second phase of the SDR was conducted by the instruction of the President of RA and, as a result, the main planning documents were approved by the latter. During the conduct of the SDR, MoD of RA received methodological advice from the experts of the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Bulgaria, Latvia and NATO. During 2009 the defence reforms in the MoD were directed at the development of interoperability capabilities of Armenian Armed Forces, human resource management, military education and other spheres, and also at the introduction of special civilian service. The programme of defence reforms from 2010 to 2015 for MoD of RA has been devised, which includes all the sphere subject to reform with exact schedule of implementation. 2. International Integration of Armed Forces and Increasing of Interoperability capabilities During 2009 Armenia has increased the interoperability capabilities with CSTO and NATO forces. In particular, on 4 February 2009 in Moscow during the meeting of the Collective Security Council of CSTO, an agreement was reached regarding the establishment of CSTO Rapid Reaction Force and on June 14th during the next session of Collective Security Council of CSTO the appropriate agreement was signed by the members. An important event concerning the establishment of CSTO Rapid Reaction Force was the participation of one Rifle Company of Armenian Armed Forces in “Interoperability-2009” exercise in Kazakhstan. The delegation headed by the Defence Minister of RA was also present at “Zapad-2009” strategic exercise in Belarus. The establishment of CSTO Rapid Reaction Force does not only have political-military importance, but is also of great military significance. It envisages the creation of such a force, which would become an effective device in CSTO region for the solution of comprehensive security problems, ranging from responding to aggression towards the CSTO member states till the implementation of anti-terrorism operations, fighting against organized crime and the eradication of the consequences of emergency situations. At the same time the manning of Peacekeeping Brigade and expansion of RA participation in international stabilization processes continued. Particularly, Peacekeeping Brigade’s 1st rifle battalion passed the self-evaluation according to the NATO OCC. Throughout the year the number of Armenian peacekeepers in KFOR doubled, reaching to 70, but as a result of overall reduction of NATO forces, their number was reduced again. On the 21st October Armenia was recognised as ISAF troop contributing nation (TCN) and on 23-24 November RA Chief of General Staff (CGS) took part in the 3rd annual ISAF RC North TCN CHOD conference. After the finalization of legal basis with NATO and Germany, Armenian peacekeepers, after the pre-deployment training in Germany, in coming days will assume their duties in the airfield of Kunduz in Afghanistan, under the command of German contingent. 3. Cooperation With International Security Organizations Armenia actively participated in the developments and integration processes of CSTO. Serious steps were undertaken for the development of working mechanisms of CSTO collective defence. Particularly, among the CSTO member countries started an active work of the regulations of appointment of the CSTO Rapid Reaction Force commander, procedures of deployment of the Force, procedures of the employment of the Force as a military component in the solution of conflicts in the CIS region and other matters of similar nature that require mutual agreement. High ranking representatives of Defence Ministry of RA took part in number of events in different formats and levels of CSTO and CIS. There were CSTO’s high-rank officials’ visits to Armenia including CSTO’s Secretary General’s visit that ensured high level political military dialogue in the CSTO framework. 2009 was productive for Armenia-NATO cooperation as well. Activities implemented in the framework of IPAP resulted in a qualitative level of cooperation. The bilateral visits of high ranking officials and expert consultations have provided the grounds for active dialogue. In the context of Armenia-NATO dialogue, important events took place such as the participation of the Defence Minister of RA in the meeting of NATO NAC+Armenia format in May in Brussels, defence ministers’ annual EAPC session that took place in June in Brussels, in EAPC forum in Astana, in the meeting of NATO member and partner countries’ defence ministers in October in Bratislava. NATO’s Deputy Secretary General’s, Ambassador K. Bizionero’s visit to RA in April, and the visit of a delegation headed by NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative R. Simons to RA in November is also worth mentioning. The cooperation with other international organizations continued actively. Several activities, seminars and trainings were organized and implemented with OSCE and Red Cross. The Defence Ministry of RA has increased its cooperation with Armenian NGOs as well. Armenia is the only country in the region which continued to fulfil its international commitments in the field of arms control. Armenia received 7 inspections in the framework of CFE and Vienna Document during which no breaches of the internationally assumed commitments have been registered. 4. Bilateral Defence Cooperation The defence cooperation with strategic partner of RA, Russian Federation, continued to develop. Bilateral activities carried out with Russia have been directed at the raising of interoperability between the two Armed Forces, the expansion of cooperation in military technical and military educational fields. During 2009, a range of meetings between the representatives of MoD and GS of RA and RF have ensured effective realization of the activities planned for 2009. An agreement was reached on the provision of the Russian expert advice on the strategic planning in 2010. There has been a considerable progress in the development of cooperation with USA. Bilateral cooperation prospects were discussed with the commander of the National Guard of the State of Kansas MG T. Bunting during his visit to Armenia in July. The Armenian side attaches great importance to technical and consulting support provided to the peacekeeping brigade and demining centre of the MoD of RA by the US and also the expert advice provided for the Strategic Defence Review. The consultation provided by the US on control of import and export of goods according the munitions list is not less important for us. In 2009 steps were taken to develop cooperation in the fields of military education and security research. Mutually beneficial cooperation was implemented with China and India. It is important to stress the visit of the CGS of Armenian AF to China during which the possibilities of expansion of Armenian-Chinese defence cooperation were discussed and various agreements were reached. Continuous discussions and consultations were conducted with Iran and Georgia on the regional security matters. Active developments have been recorded with European countries like Greece, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hugary and Baltic countries, in particular Lituania. Armenian-Greek traditional defence cooperation was implemented in the framework of annual plan. Good prerequisites were achieved for expanding the cooperation in 2010. The political and military dialogue with Germany has been brought up into a new qualitative level, a range of programmes were planned and realized. An active dialogue continued with Bulgaria. In September the CGS of AF of RA visited Bulgaria. In November the Polish delegation Headed by the Minister of Defence paid an official visit to Armenia. Range of agreements was reached during the visit. As a result of the realized defence policy, defence related legal agreements base expanded. In particular, 10 international agreements were signed, 4 were ratified by the Parliament, 4 entered into force, 14 agreements are in the stage of interagency agreements/coordination and 5 agreements are in the development phase. Conclusion In 2009 as a result of the defence policy realized by RA, the cooperation with partner states and security organizations has expanded, Armenian defence policy became more transparent and understandable in international scene; strong bases were created for providing international support and investing international experience in the Armenian army capacity building. The Defence Attaches accredited in Armenia and military representatives had a valuable role in the implementation of Armenia’s defence policy. With the defence policy, characterised by openness, initiation and readiness, MoD of RA tried to provide the Military attachés and military representative with all the favourable conditions for their work, the result of which is visible. I would like to stress also the activities carried out in the framework of the annual plan by the association of Defence Attachés. Thank you for your productive and diligent work. I want to assure you that for us 2010 is going to be a year of new achievements.