NATO OFFICIAL UPBEAT ON ARMENIA'S IPAP PROGRESS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000827

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/CARC AND DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/25/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM MARR NATO AM
SUBJECT: NATO OFFICIAL UPBEAT ON ARMENIA'S IPAP PROGRESS
AND COMMITMENTS

REF: A. YEREVAN 133

B. YEREVAN 332

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Classified By: Poloff Steven Goode for reasons 1.4 (b, d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: NATO's special Caucasus representative
found much to praise after his June 21-22 visit. Top
Armenian officials affirmed strong political commitment to
defense reform goals and the NATO relationship, and IPAP
benchmarks are on or ahead of schedule. END SUMMARY


2. (C) TOUCHING ALL THE BASES: NATO Assistant Secretary
General and Special Representative of the Secretary General
for the South Caucasus Robert Simmons visited Armenia June
21-22, accompanied by NATO I.S. staffer Lorenz
Meyer-Minnemann. Simmons was encouraged by his visit, saying
that the government seemed "deeply committed" to meeting IPAP
goals and to Armenia's NATO relationship. He felt the
President and Prime Minister both were determined not only to
stay on track, but to advance the achievement of IPAP
benchmarks. Simmons' robust round of meetings included the
President, Prime Minister, Defense Minister, Foreign
Minister, Parliament Speaker, Chairman of Parliament's
Defense Committee, and the head of the Armenian Rescue
Service (civil defense agency). He also visited the 12th
Peacekeeping Battalion and the NATO Information Center, and
finished his visit by briefing NATO member state ambassadors
at a roundtable hosted by the U.S. Embassy. Following are
the highlights of the readout he provided NATO chiefs of
mission.


3. (C) EVERYONE LOVES NATO: President Kocharian was
particularly forthcoming, volunteering that he told Defense
Minister Harutyunian (before appointing him to lead the MOD
in April 2007) that he could only have the job if he promised
Kocharian he would sustain Armenia's defense reform momentum.
Kocharian also pledged to appoint a senior civilian member
of the Ministry of Defense to head IPAP implementation, a
move which helps the NATO-supported drive towards
civilianization of the MOD (ref A). Harutyunyan himself was
previously the Chief of the General Staff and is accordingly
familiar with the defense issues involved in NATO
cooperation. The IPAP also had the strong support of PM
Serzh Sargsian, -- long-serving Defense Minister until April
2007 -- who sees the IPAP as a dynamic document and
volunteered his goal to follow it up with a second, revised
IPAP. Finally, former MOD reformer Artur Aghabekian has
moved to the National Assembly where he chairs the Committee
on Defense, National Security, and Internal Affairs.


4. (C) DEFENSE AND SECURITY REFORMS: Simmons was impressed
with Prime Minister Sargsian's commitment to use Armenia's
new National Security Strategy as a living document, and to
require all relevant ministries and agencies to live up to
their appointed roles and missions as set out in the strategy
document. Sargsian mentioned the National Security Service,
in particular, implying that that agency had previously been
a reluctant partner with the Defense Ministry on these
issues, but that Sargsian intended to bring the Service into
line with the inter-agency plan. The Armenian Rescue Service
is to lead Armenia's new Crisis Management Center, with full
inter-agency participation. The Center will participate in a
NATO-sponsored Crisis Management Exercise in February 2008,
using a variant of the main scenario tailored to Armenia.
Simmons thought the key challenges would arise when the
government was forced to face tough decisions on transforming
the way the MOD does business in core areas, such as defense
budgeting and personnel management. Simmons highlighted
draft legislation on defense budgeting, to be considered by
parliament this fall, as an important step. (NOTE: Post is
organizing an International Visitor Program study visit to
Washington, hopefully in early fall, on defense budgeting and
appropriations for key parliamentarians. END NOTE)


5. (C) PEACEKEEPING: Simmons reported on Armenia's plans
to expand its Kosovo peacekeeping contingent from a platoon
to a full company. The GOAM is also exploring deployment of
a contingent (possibly medical specialists) to support ISAF
in Afghanistan, though Simmons thought the government had
some way to go to make this a reality. The Peacekeeping
Battalion will be fully operational by early 2008 and the
full Peacekeeping Brigade will be operational by 2011,
considerably earlier than the initial goal of 2015 for the
latter. In a private pull-aside with CDA after the briefing,
Simmons said that the MOD's plans to increase the strength of
their peacekeeping unit were dependent on continued USG
assistance via FMF and IMET. Simmons said that the MOD had
asked him to underscore to the relevant USG officials how

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critical this assistance was to Armenia's development and
deployment plans.


6. (C) KOSOVO: President Kocharian pressed Simmons about
Kosovo's political future and NATO's view of it. Simmons
told the president that NATO supports Ahtisaari's plan for
Kosovo's status. He felt that de facto Kosovo independence
was inevitable and it was preferable to have an
internationally-agreed plan for orderly transition, rather
than stonewall and have a messier outcome where Kosovars
unilaterally declared independence. However, NATO was
committed to Kosovo's security and stability in either event,
he said.


7. (C) CFE, OTHER ISSUES: The president expressed concern
about Azerbaijan's talk of a moratorium on the Conventional
Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty. Simmons pointed out that
Russia's talk of a moratorium clearly created political cover
for Azerbaijan to consider the same, and if Armenia objects
to an Azerbaijan moratorium, the best approach would be to
convince Russia to uphold the CFE. Kocharian seemed really to
take this on board, Simmons felt, and the president promised
to raise the point with President Putin at their next meeting
in Sochi. On missile defense, Kocharian asked what NATO had
decided. Simmons felt that Kocharian stuck largely to a
Russian script on the issue. The Gabala (Azerbaijan) radar
station issue was not raised directly, but was clearly on the
president's mind. Simmons replied to Kocharian that NATO had
no formal position on this issue.


8. (C) COMMENT: Simmons' visit offered Armenian leaders the
perfect, low-cost opportunity to bolster the Western pillar
of Armenia's "complementarity" policy -- at a time when its
U.S. relationship is strained over the contentious Iran
issue. President Kocharian also tacked the other way June
26, commenting at a joint press conference with visiting
Greek President Papoulias that Armenia had no plans to join
NATO in the foreseeable future, as this would be detrimental
to Armenia's national security. Rhetorical jigs and jags
aside, Armenia's top leaders seem to have concluded that the
Euro-Atlantic model of defense reform is genuinely in
Armenia's own best interests, and to be committed to these
reforms for their own sake.
GODFREY