The NATO envoy to the South Caucasus, Robert Simmons, said Nov. 6 that NATO is not jockeying over Armenia with its Moscow-led counterweight, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Eurasianet e-source informs.

At a news conference in Yerevan, Simmons said NATO does not see a problem in Russian border guards policing Armenia’s border with NATO member Turkey. The only CSTO member in the South Caucasus, Armenia cooperates closely with Moscow in security and defense matters. Proposed plans to open the Armenian-Turkish border would bring NATO and Russia into immediate contact via the border guards on Armenia’s Turkish border.

Simmons said Armenia is welcome to cooperate with both NATO and CSTO. He reminded that Yerevan will send 30 servicemen to Afghanistan to assist the NATO campaign in 2010.