Armenia received new message from NATO summit

President Serzh Sragsyan's refusal to attend the NATO summit in Lisbon demonstrated that Armenia has its own stance on the one hand, and that it is willing to continue the cooperation with the alliance on the other, Alexander Makarov, the head of the CIS Institute's Armenia branch, told a news conference on Thursday.

He said that the only "interesting message" that Armenia got was the NATO secretary general's statement that his organization has no role in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, and this means that the OSCE Minsk Group will remain the body in charge of the conflict settlement.

Arguing with him, journalist and expert of the Civilitas Foundation, Tatul Hakobyan, considered Armenia's non-participation as wastefulness for the country.

"The Armenian president could talk about the country's position at the summit," he said.