Thank you. First of all, I would like to express gratitude to Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov for the invitation and warm reception in Moscow. Indeed, we meet quite regularly and often. The regular meetings are held between the heads of our states, as well - during the recent three years about three dozen meetings between the leaders of the two states were held.

Today we had a good opportunity to discuss not just a wide range of issues related to our bilateral agenda, but also the process of the implementation of the agreements reached between the leaders of our countries.

We noted that those agreements are fully implemented; the relations are developing upwards and enriched with a new substance. Today, we made up an inventory of our legal framework. We have very firm legal basis - nearly two hundred agreements. Some of them are in need of renewal. We are also preparing the drafts of new agreements for signing during the upcoming high-level meetings.

In the course of the talks, we touched upon the military-political aspects of our bilateral relations. It is very important that today the exchange of the ratification documents of the Protocol No. 5 on the staying of the Russian military base on the territory of the RA was held. That Protocol was signed during the state visit of Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev to Yerevan. Not a long time, I would say even shortly afterwards, not only the executive, but also legislative branches of the government, worked quite consistently and today we have already exchanged the ratified documents. And the Protocol will come into force from this date.

We discussed the very successful work on coordination of the foreign policy activities. The regular consultations between the MFAs of Armenia and Russia are conducted on the basis of the Protocol on the consultations signed in 1992. Almost twenty years passed since we have agreed to update that document, as we are interested in more interaction between our Ministries on the international scene.

We touched upon the economic sphere of our bilateral relations. The economic cooperation consists in mutually beneficial serious projects that are fulfilled, and new ones are scheduled. Literally tomorrow the meeting of the Armenian-Russian intergovernmental commission will take place in Rostov-on-Don during which new projects will be discussed. They are on transport, energy, telecommunications and IT. The volume and depth of our economic relations are quite large. There are about one and a half thousand enterprises with Russian capital that are doing business in Armenia. The volume of the Russian investments has practically reached three billion dollars. We conduct a good interregional cooperation, as well. In April, the first forum on the interregional cooperation took place in Armenia. It was a rather successful forum.

Of course, we touched upon and still will discuss a number of international and regional issues, and first of all, issues related to our region. Particular attention was paid to the discussion of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. Armenia highly appreciates the role of Russia as a Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group and the personal contribution of President Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev and the efforts of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov undertaken towards the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

I would like once again to thank for the invitation and warm reception and by-turn to invite Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov to pay an official visit to Armenia.

Question: In your opinion, how effective is the format of the OSCE Minsk Group? Don’t you plan to change it? If yes, into what? Are you viewing the possibility of the participation of such regional countries like Turkey and Iran in it?

Edward Nalbandian: For my part, I would like to add that of course the Minsk Group and particularly the format of the Co-Chairs are quite effective. In that format a great negotiating experience has been accumulated in settling of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. The attempts to shift the process into other formats are meaningless. I liked the remarks of Sergey Viktorovich that those attempts “come from evil”. I think that is exactly what is it. The attempts to shift the discussions into various parliamentary assemblies and even the General Assembly of the UN have no reason. As a matter of fact, no conflict has been settled in any parliamentary assemblies, even at the General Assembly of the UN. There is no need to change the existing format. We share the viewpoint of the Co-Chair countries that it is necessary to continue the negotiations in the existing format that is quite effective for the negotiation process.