I am glad to welcome here my Iraqi counterpart, Foreign Minister and my good friend Mr. Hoshiyar Zebari with whom I had many occasions to meet in the framework of international organizations. A lot of arrangements have been made and I invited Mr. Zebari to pay a visit to Armenia. I am happy that today he is in Yerevan on an official visit.

During recent years we witness rather active developments in our relations. These include reopening of the two Embassies- our Embassy in Baghdad and reopening of the Embassy of Iraq in Armenia, two sessions of the two intergovernmental commissions in Baghdad and Yerevan, as well as numerous visits from Armenia to Iraq and from Iraq to Armenia.

Today we have a good opportunity to continue our negotiations, dialogue, which we have maintained with my colleague for years and I am happy that everything we arrange comes true. Today we touched upon the enhancing of the legal framework, and our countries make the first steps on that direction.

We stress the importance of activation of trade and economic ties. There are some positive developments, a growth in percentage can be seen, but the numbers are still far from being sufficient for the two sides. We have a great potential and we are sure that with joint efforts we can provide a further development in trade and economic relations.

We discussed also the activation of bilateral political dialogue. Today we signed a Memorandum on holding consultations between the two Foreign Ministries, which will provide an opportunity to our countries to coordinate our approaches in the framework of the international organizations as our approaches are very close concerning regional and international issues.

Today we also had an opportunity to exchange view on different international issues of bilateral interest.

Mister Zebari presented the efforts of the Iraqi Government to enhance stability and security in Iraq. I spoke on the efforts of Armenia and the international community towards the exceptionally peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

We also turned to the activation of cultural ties and cooperation in the areas of science and education. So, we covered a wide range of topics and we will continue the negotiations during the working lunch.

I am glad to welcome again my colleague and pass the floor to Mister Zebari with pleasure.

ArmeniaTV: Mr. Minister our President and the President of Azerbaijan met in Vienna. In your opinion is there any breakthrough in the negotiation process, in general what developments are you expecting?

Edward Nalbandian: You know that on November 19 the meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan was assessed as constructive and during that meeting the Presidents instructed the Foreign Ministers to use the first opportunity for a meeting to continue the negotiations and to activate the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. It was the first meeting on a Presidential level since January 2012.

Everyone knows that it was not because of Armenia that such meetings were not held.

Few attempts were made by the Co-Chairs to organize such meetings. The last such effort was in June, even the venue and time were arranged but two-three days before the meetings the Azerbaijanis rejected it. We hope that the Vienna meeting is providing new opportunities.

After Vienna the first chance of the meeting between the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan will be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow in the framework of the OSCE Ministerial Meeting in Kiev.

We will try to push forward the negotiation process as much as possible. Indeed the existence of the willingness of the sides to settlement is very important, but it is also important to have a realistic approach on how the issue could be settled. Such a realistic approach can be based on the proposals made by the Co-Chair countries which have been published in the five statements of the Presidents of the Co-Chair countries in L’Aquila, Muskoka, Deauville, Los Cabos and Enniskillen.

Armenia has expressed its support to the exceptionally peaceful resolution of the issue based on the proposals, principles and norms of those Statements. If the same approach is expressed by Azerbaijan it will be possible to move forward in the negotiation process and come closer to the resolution.