ARMENIA, GREECE SIGN MILITARY PACT.

In the course of a two-day Armenian-Greek summit meeting in Athens, defense ministers Vazgen Sarksian and Gerasimos Arsenis signed an agreement on military cooperation between the two countries. The agreement is said to envisage deliveries of military equipment, personnel training, and exchanges of information and assessments. Arsenis said that the agreement builds on already existing military relations among the two countries. According to Arsenis, Greek military personnel have assisted the Armenian military since 1992, and Greece was among the first countries to send a military attache to Yerevan. Arsenis further said that Greece seeks to create a security network for strengthening regional stability. Sarksian was in turn cited as saying that Greece had "a reliable ally in Armenia" and that the agreement just signed was a natural consequence of the two countries’ established military links.

The Armenian-Greek summit also produced a friendship and cooperation agreement, signed by Presidents Levon Ter-Petrosian and Kostis Stephanopoulos and focusing on economic and political relations. The two countries’ prime ministers and foreign ministers also held talks on developing bilateral trade and consultations in foreign policy. (Western agencies, June 18) The military agreement seems certain to produce concern in Turkey, particularly in view of Armenia’s close military cooperation with Russia in the Transcaucasus.

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