Armenia expects to continue fruitful cooperation with EU: Nalbandian

The 17th session of the Armenia-European Union Cooperation Council was held on May 23 in Brussels, the foreign ministry told. The Armenian delegation was led by foreign minister Edward Nalbandian, while the EU delegation was led by Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and VicePresident of the European Commission.

The Armenian delegation included Garegin Melkonyan, rst deputy minister of economic development and investments, Vigen Kocharyan, deputy minister of justice and Makar Ghambaryan, deputy minister of international economic integration and reforms. The sides touched upon achievements which were reached after the previous session of the Cooperation Council.

A wide circle of issues of the Armenia-EU agenda was extensively discussed, including political dialogue, trade and sector cooperation, human rights, mobility, process of reforms. Ideas were exchanged over the priorities of the 2017-2020 Armenia-EU partnership.

The last year’s high level mutual visits were discussed, the effective talks over the Armenia-EU comprehensive and expanded partnership deal, and the participation of Armenia in various programs of the European Union. The sides emphasized the signaling of completion of negotiations over the Armenia-EU comprehensive and expanded partnership deal by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and President of the European Council Donald Tusk in February of 2017, and the initialing of the deal in Yerevan in March, and expressed hope that the agreement will be able to be signed during the Brussels summit of the EU Eastern Partnership. In his speech, Nalbandian mentioned that Armenia remains committed to the Eastern Partnership’s goals and continues to contribute to the joint efforts in this multilateral format.

Armenia’s achievements of the past two years were discussed, including joining the COSME and Horizon 2020 programs, as well as the launch of talks over the Common Aviation Zone and the Creative Europe program. The active cooperation of Armenia and the EU in the direction of facilitating the process of entry visas and implementing readmission agreements was emphasized.

In this context, Nalbandian mentioned that Armenia expects to start dialogue over liberalizing entry visas, as it was earlier outlined in Riga. Minister Nalbandian also touched upon the April 2 parliamentary election of Armenia, mentioning that an unprecedented large number of international observers were following it, who declared that the election was well organized, fundamental freedoms were protected and the results reected the people’s will.

In this regard, Nalbandian thanked the EU for the nancial and technical assistance for ensuring transparency of the electoral process. The sides also discussed international and regional issues, including the developments in Iran, Turkey and the Middle East. The Armenian FM presented the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries aimed at the exclusively peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict. Edward Nalbandian added that Azerbaijan’s April 2016 unleashed aggression was the largest escalation since the 1994 and 1995 trilateral ceasere agreements.

He stressed that during the aggression, Azerbaijan’s gross violations of international humanitarian rights and human rights were aimed at terrorizing the population of Artsakh.

High Representative Mogherini said the conflict doesn’t have a military solution, and the EU fully supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries. Highlightig the principled stance of the EU regarding the absence of an alternative to the peaceful solution of the conflict, Nalbandian mentioned that Azerbaijan continues to not implement the Vienna and St. Petersburg agreements, although their signicance is continuously being emphasized, including during the recent meeting of the Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign minister in Moscow.

Thanking for the high level organization of the session, Edward Nalbandian emphasized that Armenia expects to continue effective cooperation with the European Union. Afterwards Edward Nalbandian and Federica Mogherini held a joint press conference.