On December 5, 2003 Minister Vartan Oskanian participated in the annual meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) in Brussels. The Minister and the leadership of NATO discussed NATO's activities and the prospects for deepening cooperation. The two sides also spoke about programs and new mechanisms for democratic reform, as well as the mission of the EAPC to meet the new challenges of terrorism and international threats.

During the Euro Atlantic Partnership Council Ministerial, Minister Oskanian made a short statement about how important and useful the Partnership has been for Armenia. “Ten years ago we started as a simple member of Partnership for Peace and then of EAPC. Today we are parts of the Planning and Review Process and the Status of Forces Agreement. We are ready to host the NATO liaison officer in Yerevan, and we will soon be appointing our ambassador to specifically represent Armenia in NATO.

This year, we held Cooperative Best Effort NATO exercises. Representatives of the Turkish military took part in those exercises. Turkish officers on Armenian soil? Some time ago this would have been impossible to even imagine, but the partnership made it possible,” said Minister Oskanian in his statement.

In the framework of the annual EAPC meeting, Vartan Oskanian met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Abdullah Gul. This was the third meeting between the two Ministers this year. Again, they discussed prospects for normalizing relations between the two countries, as well as the current state of the Nagorno Karabagh peace process. Ministers Oskanian and Gul concurred that such meetings are important and agreed to continue to maintain direct contact.