Dear friends,

I am very pleased to welcome my Russian colleague, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, who is in Armenia on an official visit.

We often meet. Last year we had more than a dozen meetings, and this year it is already the fourth meeting. But this visit is of symbolic nature, as it is held in the days of the celebration of 20th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between our two countries.

On April 3, just 20 years ago, diplomatic relations were established, and a new page was opened in our relations on state level. These relations are based on centuries-old ties of friendship between our two brotherly peoples.

We celebrate the 20th anniversary of the diplomatic relations against the backdrop of positive developments, which we have had over these 20 years. First, is the high level of a political dialogue and high-level visits. Over the past three years, the leaders of the two countries have met 40 times. Only in the last two years we have held two state visit of the Presidents of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia - the first state visit in the two decades of history of our diplomatic relations.

We have quite successfully been working in Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation and Inter-parliamentary Commission, the relations between the regions are developing positively. About 70 of the Russian Federation’s regions have partnerships relations and cooperate with the Armenian regions, marzes. Last year the Forum for regional cooperation was organized and this year we are preparing for the second forum to be held in Russia.

Trade and economic relations are developing very intensively, as well and today our trade volume has reached about one billion dollars. The Russian investments in Armenia are about three billion dollars. It’s obvious that in reality there are a lot of positive.

I would like also to point out the cooperation in the field of humanitarian, scientific and technical cooperation. Days and years of culture were organized both in Armenia and Russia very successfully.

Indeed, we are very pleased that in twenty years we have had such developments and a huge potential was set up. This potential is based on a solid legal base- about 200 agreements were signed between the two countries.

Today, in the course of negotiations we discussed all these issues. We agreed on a joint statement on the occasion of 20th Anniversary of diplomatic relations, which was signed in your presence and would be presented to your attention.

I would like to welcome Sergey Viktorovich once again and give him the floor.

Please, Sergey Viktorovich.

Question, M. Levina: I have one one short question for both Ministers. The first question is to you Mr. Nalbandian. Azerbaijan is endlessly appealing to the decision of the UN Security Council, and presents them in a distorted form, moreover, appealing and presenting allegedly quotations of the Co-Chairs, cuts them out of context, and especially focuses on the unacceptability of maintaining of the status quo. How do you comment that?

Edward Nalbandian: First of all, regarding the Security Council resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh adopted from April to November, in 1993.

The main requirement of these resolutions was the cessation of hostilities and reaching a cease-fire agreement. Unfortunately, after each resolution, from one resolution to another, Azerbaijan not only failed to comply with this requirement, but intensified the military operations and as a result, Azerbaijan was defeated by the local Armenian forces. It was just local Armenian forces - these are formulations that are used in the aforementioned Security Council resolutions.

And not because of the requirements of the Security Council, but for the reason that, we can say, after suffering a crushing defeat, Azerbaijan had to ask Karabakh to sign a cease-fire agreement. By the way talking about it, Russian Ambassador Kazimirov wrote in his book, thanks to whose efforts mainly the cease-fire agreement was signed.

It was a time when the efforts were aimed at achieving of a cease-fire agreement. The page was turned, and the sides began to engage in the process of settlement, and that's why the Co-Chair countries today do not make references to those resolutions, because the resolutions specifically pointed out the basic demands to stop the military operations – reaching of a cease-fire agreement, but not the details of the settlement of the issue.

The settlement of the issue currently is held by the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group, which in recent years made great efforts. Over the past three or four years, tremendous efforts have been exerted by the President of the Russian Federation in order to bring closer the positions of the sides. Of course, certain progress in those negotiations has been achieved. On this Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan noted in the relevant statement in Sochi in January of this year, also expressing gratitude to the Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group. They expressed willingness that in the same format the Co-Chairs would continue their efforts up to the establishment of peace in the region.

With regard to the status quo, the Azerbaijanis link change or maintaining of the status quo to only one factor - the return of territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. In this regard, the Co-Chairs have repeatedly noted, including at the level of the Foreign Ministers, that all principles and elements proposed as the basis for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue have been conceived as an integrated whole, and to select some elements or principles over the others is unacceptable and will hinder the settlement.

Regarding the question as of who is more interested in that status quo, if Azerbaijan were not really interested in the maintenance of the status quo not just in words, but in deeds, it would have agreed to the proposals presented by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. I remind you that Azerbaijan has recently rejected at least four of the proposals presented by OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

Question: Hello, Elena Chernenko, the newspaper Kommersant. I have a question for both Ministers. Recently the conflict over Iran's nuclear program is escalated. What kind of impact it could have on the security of Armenia, as well as the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue? Thank you.

Edward Nalbandian: Armenia has repeatedly spoken out on this issue. We stand for resolving the issues over Iran's nuclear program through negotiations, by the joint efforts of Iran and the international community.

Iran is Armenia's neighboring country, and we are interested in the resolution of the Iran-related issues through dialogue and negotiations, and not by use of force.