Ruben Shugarian: "The return to Europe for Armenia is a return home"

The international conference "The Southern Caucasus: Regional Security and Stability" started its work on September 29. The conference is devoted to issues of the effectiveness of peacemaking efforts in the Southern Caucasus, security and stability aspects, changes in the geopolitical situation in the Southern Caucasus after September 11, 2001, and others. The conference is arranged by the Center of Strategic Analysis "Spektr" with financial support of the NATO Public Diplomacy Division. The Informational Office of the Council of Europe in Armenia and local company "Mika Ltd." are sponsors of the conference too.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Deputy Foreign Minister Ruben Shugarian stated that the search for regional stability in the Southern Caucasus was a complex one, "Here are a lot of conflicts which split the regional stability." At the same time, according to his words, all the three counties of the Southern Caucasus have a common wish to integrate into Europe, in spite of some difference of their approaches to the making of the regional security system. And in this regard, "Even thought the European Union does not call the states of the Southern Caucasus "new neighbors", it holds the doors open for them. The return to Europe for Armenia is a return home. And we will return home taking into account all the peculiarities of our history, our relationships with Russia, with the Near East countries, taking into account a bridge to the US that exists owing to the million and a half strong US Armenian Diaspora."