The opening speech was made by YSU Rector Aram Simonyan. Then the honorable guest of YSU made his speech, focusing on three key points: introduction of NATO and its structure, NATO-Armenia partnership, as well as the Southern Caucasus regional challenges and potential, as well as prospects for development.

Mr. Rasmussen said it is a great honor to be at Yerevan State University and he is sure that many of the future leaders of Armenia are sitting here in this hall this morning. He says he has been always impressed by the potential of Armenia. It is well-known that centuries ago this was one of the richest regions in the world and it can achieve that distinction once again.

Speaking about NATO-Armenia partnership, he stressed on the fact that NATO is providing significant support to Armenia in the areas of defense reforms and disaster response. This makes Armenia stronger, safer and able to contribute to security elsewhere. And everything is done in full respect to the Armenian balanced foreign and security policy. NATO sees no contradiction between good NATO-Armenia and good Armenian-Russian relations. Mr. Secretary General spoke about the situation around Ramil Safarov. According to the speaker the act of the Azerbaijani officer Safarov can be classified only as crime. NATO condemns not only this crime, but the Azerbaijani behavior in general, which does not coincide with the international standards and will not contribute to the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The position of NATO is clear. And Mr. Rasmussen is going to announce about it tomorrow in Baku.

Mr. Secretary General is sure that NATO mission in Afghanistan has already had its positive impact. He mentioned that in 2014 NATO will complete its mission in this country, but it will continue to train, advice and assist the military forces of the Afghanistan Army. He very much hopes that Armenia will be a part of that support. One student, representing Centre for European Studies of YSU, was pessimistic regarding the future of Afghanistan, and made a stress on the fact of the Taliban presence in this country and that it is not defeated yet and may cause obstacles in future. And Mr. Secretary General is sure that there is no gloomy future for this country and Afghani people can overcome this obstacle. He focused on a very important fact, that last year around 8% economic growth was registered in Afghanistan, better infrastructure, improvement of the educational system, 8 million children now go to school (1/3 of them are girls), construction of thousands of kilometers of roads, the health situation has improved, mortality has gone down, life expectancy has increased. There are many challenges, but there is also progress.

Mr. Rasmussen's message is that only cooperation, dialogue, and compromise can build the stability and secturity that prosperity requires. All countries can put the past aside and move forward. And the whole continent would benefit as a result.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen also spoke about NATO-Russia cooperation. After the end of the Cold War, collapse of the USSR, NATO has launched the cooperation with post-soviet region. Of course, there is not yet large progress in the partnership with Russia, but the most important is there is also no confrontation with Russia. The dialogue will be continued. NATO has invited Russia to cooperate, because they do believe that there is common interest in protecting the populations. So far, progress has been seen in cooperation with Russia in a number of other areas: "We have strengthened cooperation on Afghanistan; we have enhanced our cooperation on counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism and counter-piracy." Mr. Secretary General does not share the pessimistic view on the confrontation in future. Compared with the past he sees a lot of progress.

Mr. Rasmussen says that NATO needs partners in this, Southern Caucasian region and across the world, the partners, who share values and desire for security.