Azerbaijan, Baku, 10 March / Trend corr K. Ramazanova/ The Parliament of Azerbaijan should take part in forming of the country's defence policy, the NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the South Caucasus and Central Asia Robert Simmons said at a press conference on 8 March.
"The Parliament should discuss important points to make decision on defence issues, as it did with the peacekeepers in Kosovo," he said.
According to Simmons, the civil government should improve the supervision over the Army, which will be carried out in the second Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP).
Simmons said that the key issues in the Plan are training of Azerbaijan's army for participation in the joint operations with the NATO forces, holding of trainings, as well as military training and support by the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry.
"We are also considering joining our operations by the Ministry of Emergency Situations," Simmons said.
He said that at the end of June the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) will hold discussion over cooperation with NATO.
According to Simmons, implementation of the IPAP paves a way for Azerbaijan to join NATO.
The foundation for cooperation between Azerbaijan and NATO was laid through signing a program-document within the framework of the Partnership for Peace on 4 May 1994. Azerbaijan was the first amongst the 27 OSCE member countries to join the program.
In April 1996, an official document envisaging concrete directions in the cooperation was signed within the framework of the Partnership for Peace. Now, by the program Azerbaijan is fulfilling about 50 tasks.
In August 2005, the Azerbaijani President signed the Decree on Approval of the Working Plan on Individual Partnership between Azerbaijan and NATO.
Presently, the two sides are cooperating within the framework of the second stage of the Working Plan.
