Cooperation of Armenia with NATO is not to be dubbed anti-Russian, Mr William Lahue, NATO Liaison officer in South Caucasus, told the media in Yerevan on Friday.

NATO maintains partnership with nations based on their sovereign choices and security priorities, and does not measure that partnership through the lens of Russia’s interests or aspirations, he added.

It’s up to Armenia to choose its own security mix, and NATO does not follow zero-sum mentality, Mr Jasper Wieck, Head of Defense and Security Policy Division of the German Foreign Ministry, added. 

An obvious proof of this is the fact that Armenia, which is an active member of the Collective Security treaty organization (which includes Russia and other ex-Soviet states) has at the same a long-standing partnership with NATO, he added.

In fact, Russia itself has been a NATO partner for more than two decades, he concluded.