Good afternoon.

It’s a great pleasure to welcome Ukraine's Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara, who came to Armenia on a visit in the framework of Ukranian Chairmanship. Despite the fact that we have no borders with Ukraine, our nations are interconnected by centuries-old friendship.

Armenia places great importance to the development, strengthening and extending of comprehensive relations with Ukraine.

I’ve been to Odessa recently, participated in the BSEC Ministerial meeting where an fruitful conversation between the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Ukraine was held. Today we’ve continued our talks, it was quite exhaustive. We touched upon the development of bilateral relations, regional and international matters, issues of OSCE activity and Ukraine’s priorities during its Chairmanship in the Organization.

We have expressed our support for the candidacy of Ukraine for the Chairmanship and its priorities during Ukraine’s Chairmanship period.

Ukraine has been Chairman-in-Office of one of the most significant Organizations for the past six months, the next six month are to follow and the preparatory works to the organization of the Ministerial Council meeting is looming. There are lots of issues here where the two states can cooperate. And we intend to continue our support to Ukraine for the realization of its priorities during the Chairmanship. Armenia is an active member of the OSCE, takes part in all three dimensions of the Organization’s activities.

Of course, we have also touched upon the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. I presented the recent developments in the settlement of the above-mentioned issue.

We also held a discussion over the OSCE-CoE cooperation, given the fact that the former is chaired by Ukraine and the latter – by Armenia.

Both states are interested in achieving greater cooperation in various international organizations, including the UN and BSEC, chaired by Armenia.

We have already discussed a wide range of issues and we’ll have an opportunity of having working lunch discussions.

The floor is yours, my friend, colleague, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Leonid Kozhara.

IA news.am My first question is for both Ministers. Ukraine leads the OSCE, while Armenia heads the Council of Europe. If you may, please, go into details over the cooperation between both organizations. And my second question goes to you, Mr.

Edward Nalbandian. After your meeting with H. E. Mr. Elmar Mamedyarov, which took place in Vienna on 12th of July, the Azerbaijani side has published supposedly new details of the meeting, specifying the statement by the Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister that the process would continue if Azerbaijani territories were liberated. Could you, please, elaborate on the details of the meeting?

Minister Nalbandian: As to the cooperation between the OSCE and the CoE, I would like to mention that the two enjoy different membership, composition, mandate, and during the last few years the cooperation between the two Organizations has been developing. In my capacity as Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe I had an opportunity to present the priorities during Armenia’s Presidency in Vienna at the beginning of June at the Permanent Council meeting. I know that the Ukrainian side has presented, if I’m not mistaken, in February, its priorities, at the respective meeting in the framework of the CoE.

The existing OSCE-CoE co-ordination group holds meetings twice a year. During our Presidency in CoE we expressed readiness to promote greater coordination and cooperation between the two Organizations. I understand it so and it was reaffirmed today during the conversation we had with the Chairperson-in-Office, i. e. we share the same approach towards the promotion of OSCE-CoE cooperation.

As to the meeting in Vienna, this time was not the first one, when, as you know, the Azerbaijani side spread information which does not correspond to what has been discussed at the meeting. Such an approach, mentioned by you, citing the Azerbaijani side, has never been implemented either during the tete-a-tete format meeting nor in the presence of the Co-Chairs.

During the previous meetings, which were held on the level of the Ministers in the presence of the Co-Chairs, we agreed on the text for media. While Armenia and the three Co-Chairs have uploaded the same agreed-upon texts to their web sites, the Azerbaijani side was giving its own interpretation, which was a far cry from what had been discussed.

The conversation on the ways of peaceful settlement promotion has been continued, we have also discussed the schedule of forthcoming meetings within the next month, including the possibility of organization of the Summit, senior officials meeting by the end of the year.

As you know, the last planned senior officials meeting hasn’t been held by the fault of Azerbaijan. As of now, it seems there is an understanding in principle and agreement on the necessity of holding such a meeting and we have to work towards completion of this task by the end of the year.

Here is, in outline, what we have discussed in Vienna.