YEREVAN, MARCH 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The program of foundation of the regional system of seismic monitoring proposed by Armenia arose great interest at the NATO. Samvel Mkrtchian, the Permanent Representative of Armenia to the NATO informed the journalists about it on March 14. In his words, in this sphere Armenia got rather ahead of neighboring countries. A corresponding center has already been founded in Garni, a program has been worked out, a specially equiped underground laboratory functions which implements that monitoring. S.Mkrtchian mentioned that the program has already been presented to the NATO subdivision engaged in issues of science and also discussed with Jean Fournet, the NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, who visited the RA NAS Geology Institute during the NATO week being held in Yerevan. In S.Mkrtchian's opinion, adoption of the program will be a great achievement in the sense of development of regional cooperation. He also mentioned that Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan have cooperated for years within the framework of another program, one on monitoring of pollution of rivers having regional importance. The program is implemented with the NATO assistance.

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