Political scientists are divided over whether the NATO Summit in Warsaw made historic decisions.
Stepan Grigoryan, head of the Analytical Centre on Globalisation and Regional Cooperation (ACGRC), believes summit made historic decisions. The NATO summit resolved a number of problems. The first is that NATO will deploy its forces in the Baltic States and Poland, which are becoming full members of NATO. The summit also announced Georgia’s admission to NATO and so on.
Summing up, he said:
“That is, decisions were made without Russia’s position considered.”
As to whether the summit’s decision on the deployment of 4,000-strong troops in the Baltic States and Poland is a step toward further confrontation, Mr Grigoryan answered in the affirmative.
Director of the Caucasus Institute, political scientist Alexander Iskandaryan said that the Warsaw summit resembled the summit in Wales.
“If I am right, historic decisions were mentioned at that time as well. But no historic decision was made, but what happened in Warsaw should have been expected,” Mr Iskandaryan said.
Georgia will not be able to become a NATO member for a long period.
“And the troops to be deployed in the Baltic States are, to put it mildly, not what the states themselves expected. The actually expected real military bases, and their wish can be understood.”
The analyst ruled out any “cold war” scenario between the US and Russia, noting that the summit did not adopt any decision vital for the South Caucasus. “The Caucasus at this summit was not treated as just a province; rather, it was an extremely remote periphery, so the debates addressing the Caucasus, particularly Nagorno-Karabakh, were not within the authorities of what NATO normally deals with. Hence, the region will not see any developments. And even if it does, that will have nothing to do with the NATO summit.”
Armenia attended the event as a participant in the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. “Armenia is among the countries named as the best partner of NATO. What makes it specific is that Armenia is the only country in the Transcaucasus that takes part in two peacekeeping operations with NATO and also the only CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization] member state that develops such a cooperation,” Poghosyan said.
Poghosyan said he finds the NATO-Armenia partnership projects and sub-projects more profound and substantiated than the NATO-Ukraine cooperation, adding that the country lags very little behind Georgia in terms of joint initiatives with the alliance.