By Suren Musayelyan Armenia and NATO have again exchanged their "partnership" credentials this week as events dedicated to their deepening ties were launched in Yerevan on November 5. Speaking at a seminar held as part of the NATO Week events in the Armenian capital, the NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathuraidescribed Armenia as an important partner for the military alliance. He especially noted Armenia's considerable contribution to the ISAF operation in Afghanistan. Appathurai, who was scheduled to meet with senior government officials in Yerevan, said the NATO was seeking a deeper involvement in the South Caucasus and would like to step up its cooperation with Armenia. He said the alliance leadership was now considering ways of gaining a "stronger foothold" in the volatile region. "But, of course, we don't want to impose ourselves. We just want to offer more opportunities for cooperation. And if countries like Armenia but also Georgia and Azerbaijan wish to take this offer, we will have more to do, more on the menu in the coming months and years," the official said in an interview with RFE/RL's Armenian service. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also spoke of potentialities for developing further partnership with Armenia as he visited Yerevan in September. He insisted that there is "no contradiction" between Armenia's military alliance with Russia and closer ties with the NATO - a stance shared by the leadership of Armenia, a member of the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization that hosts the only Russian military base in the South Caucasus. Pro-establishment politicians and analysts in Armenia have also tried to present the nation's growing ties with the NATO and generally with the West (including negotiations on deeper ties with the European Union) as part of a comprehensive foreign policy agenda that does not involve any reorientation or otherwise endangers Yerevan's traditionally close ties with Moscow. But some early signs of worsening relations between Yerevan and Moscow suggest that Russia is watching its ally's "flirting" with the West with a great deal of jealousy, to say the least. Last month Russia openly defied Armenia's request to stop the operations of its controversial immigration program that is said to encourage outward migration from the tiny South Caucasus country and this difference in the positions of the two former Soviet allies had to be reflected in the minutes of a recent intergovernmental committee meeting in Yerevan. In what could be viewed as further evidence of growing differences Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have canceled/postponed his visit to Armenia in September even though diplomats in Yerevan and Moscow rushed to explain that no visit had been scheduled in the first place. Prior to that, on several occasions, Armenia spoke dismissively of the idea of joining a Eurasian Union, a Putin-advocated reintegration project for former Soviet countries. No wonder that such a position would draw an angry "analysis" from leading pro-Kremlin pundit Mikhail Leontyev, who published an article in October reminding Armenia about its heavy reliance on Russia for economy and security. The "privileged" price of Russian natural gas supplies to Armenia has repeatedly been mentioned as a major argument in this context. Negotiations over the price of this fuel essential to Armenia's economy may become a further indicator of where the Armenian-Russian relations go against the background of an approaching presidential election in Armenia. In a November 5 article published in Vestnikkavkaza.net, analysts YekaterinaTesemnikova, from Moscow, and David Stepanyan, from Yerevan, described Armenia's vagueness on the Eurasian Union idea as "reasonable". "And the reason is not the pressure of the West and not even the hope of receiving 1.5 billion euros in Europe, allegedly promised in case of an irreversible movement of Armenia on the path of "strengthening democracy." In fact, the government of [Armenian President Serzh] Sargsyan expects from Moscow guarantees of substantial financial, economic and political support till the presidential elections, including gas prices acceptable for Armenia." The authors further concluded: "Persuading Armenia to participate in the Russian integration project is certainly possible, but only by applying the so-called "soft power", popularizing and economically justifying the benefits of carrying out the idea of the Eurasian Union." "The Noyan Tapan Highlights", #41 (938) 12 November 2012

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