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 YEREVAN 00000827 001.2 OF 002 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 YEREVAN 00000827 002.2 OF 002 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