Honorable Mr. Ažubalis,

Dear friends,

I am glad to welcome my Lithuanian colleague Audronius Ažubalis who is visiting Yerevan as the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Chairperson-in-Office, I am opening the abbreviation to underline what consolidates us in the organization; strengthening of the security in Europe and the development of cooperation.

Armenia is an active member of the OSCE, participates in all directions of the organization’s activities, and in reforms in Corfu or other frameworks as well.

Armenia has supported Lithuania’s OSCE chairmanship and we will make contribution supporting the steps aimed at the rise of the role and efficiency of the organization.

I am very glad that yesterday the visit of my Lithuanian colleague began with the joint celebration of the National Day of Lithuania. It is symbolic, as Lithuania was the first country to recognize the independence of Armenia in 1991.

Our bilateral relations are on a high level. We hope that the visit of Lithuanian Foreign Minister, and the scheduled visit of the Lithuanian President in May, will contribute to the development and strengthening of our relations.

Yesterday, we had an exchange of views on a number of issues of bilateral, regional and international agenda. Today, we continued our discussions on the issues concerning OSCE in expanded formats.

Naturally, we discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. The OSCE Minsk Group within the frames of the Co-Chairmanship, enjoys the mandate and support of the international community, in which framework the negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh issue are held.

In the discussions I noted that the Armenian approaches are in line with the statements, the documents on Nagorno-Karabakh issue which were adopted within the framework of OSCE ministerial meetings in Helsinki, December 2008, in Athens, December 2009, in Almaty, July 2010, and in OSCE Summit in Astana, December 2010. Also, these approaches are in line with the statements by the heads of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, Dmitri Medvedev, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy during G8 Summits in L’Acquila 2009, and Muskoka 2010. With my colleague with share the view that the peaceful settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh issue by negotiations has no alternative.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office presented also the priorities of Lithuania during its OSCE Chairmanship. I reiterated the support of Armenia during the presidency of Lithuania in OSCE on the solution of the problems which the organization is facing.

Thank you.

Question: First, to Mr. Nalbandyan: A representative of an Armenian NGO recently said that EU-Armenia cooperation process is running insufficiently, and as an example cited the action plan of European Neighborhood Policy. How would you comment this statement?

Edward Nalbandian: As for Armenia-European Union relations, I would like to draw your attention to the assessments of the EU high officials during both their visits to Yerevan and during the visits of Armenian high officials to Brussels, and those assessments are positive.

The latest example is Armenian Prime Minister’s visit to Brussels, where the cooperation between Armenia and EU was commended on the highest level.

I will bring you another example: recently, I was present at Visegrad Plus meeting in Bratislava, where the Eastern Partnership cooperation format was discussed, and the representatives of various states were presenting the negotiation process between the European Union and their countries. One of the states, which has been rather successful at the negotiations, noted that they have already closed eight of the negotiated fourteen chapters. When my turn came, I said that we are also going rather well, and we have already closed thirteen chapters.

Q: Mr. Nalbandian, lately the Turkish-Russian meetings in Moscow have created concerns in the society, that those meetings may influence negatively the Russian-Armenian relations. What would you say about that?

A: Armenian-Russian relations are based on such strong bases, that a Moscow visit by the head of another state can by no means influence negatively our allied, strategic relations with Russia.

Q: Mr. Ažubalis, since the very beginning of Lithuanian presidency in OSCE you have expressed an unconditional support towards the efforts of Minsk Group on Karabakh conflict resolution and joined the calls of international community of the last two years concerning the removal of snipers from the line of contact. Are you following or getting ready to follow the implementation of this call during your presidency? This was the first question, and the second one concerns yesterday’s statement of the Minsk Group, where it was mentioned that it is necessary to create such a mechanism for the investigation of cases of violations of ceasefire. How do see this mechanism?

A: [In addition to the response of Lithuanian Foreign Minister Andronius Ažubalis]

Since it is a rather sensitive question, I would like to add in this regard and remind you that in response to the calls of the last two years by the UN Secretary-General, the OSCE Chairmen succeeding one another, and today recited by Lithuanian Chairman and by Minsk Group Co-chairs as well, both Armenia and Karabakh responded positively to this proposal – both to the proposal of withdrawing the snipers and to the consolidation of ceasefire, as well as the proposal of creating a mechanism to investigate the cases of ceasefire violations.

You are aware, that Armenian MFA immediately greeted the latest statement of OSCE Minsk Group concerning the creation of an investigation mechanism. And I would like to remind you the proposal of the Armenian President to come to an agreement on non-use of force, which was supported by the international community.

Recently, both before and after the Sochi meeting, even yesterday, when the representatives of Co-Chair states were in the region, the ambassadors and even the OSCE Chairman-in-office, Azerbaijani snipers killed another Armenian solider in Karabakh. And at the same time they are making a big noise, without substantiated arguments, concerning the killing of nine-year-old boy while it was technically impossible to be done from Karabakh.

All those steps aim at increasing tension in the region. We support that the positive trends that appeared after the Sochi meeting by the parties were utilized to move the negotiation process forward.

Thank you.