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The visit of James Appathurai, NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, to Yerevan aims at underlining NATO-Armenia relations, especially when a new Individual Partnership Action Plan between the two sides is set to launch this year, political analyst Styopa Safaryan, Director of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs (AIISA), said in an interview with Panorama.am.

“Starting from the late 2016, Armenia and NATO launched cooperation talks aimed at setting new guidelines and agenda issues for the forthcoming years. I believe that James Appathurai’s visit is directly related to the successful implementation and completion of those talks. I assume that the top NATO official pays a visit to Armenia to present the new agenda for the partnership and once again to stress the importance of the bilateral cooperation,” Mr. Safaryan said.

Reflecting on Germany’s intention to withdraw its 260 soldiers from the Turkish Incirlik military base, Styopa Safaryan noted that NATO does not consider Turkey as a trustworthy figure.

“Turkey’s importance to NATO is mainly based on its role in the Middle East, and it is a bit difficult to put the Caucasus and the Middle East side by side and claim that NATO is in search for a substitute. However since the regional developments influence each other, NATO has to ensure its presence in the Middle East region,” the analyst concluded.