Dear colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I am glad to welcome in Yerevan Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission. This is the first visit of our guest to Armenia, which will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the development of Armenia-EU relations.
Ms. Mogherini’s meeting with the President of the Republic of Armenia has just been concluded.

During our today’s meetings we thoroughly discussed numerous issues of the development of Armenia-European Union cooperation, reflected on the process of negotiations on formation of a new legal framework. We have a clear agenda and schedule of discussions. The negotiating teams of Armenia and the European Union hold productive meetings and both of us commended the progress made.

We reaffirmed Armenia’s commitment to expand and strengthen multi-dimensional cooperation with the European Union in all the areas of mutual interest, given our commitments in other integration frameworks.

We reflected on joint efforts to-be-exerted for the further development of cooperation, i.e. issues of political dialogue, mobility, human rights, sectoral cooperation, supporting the reforms which are being implemented in Armenia.

Based on the respect for common values, we would continue promotion of the human rights and rule of law, improvement of good governance, fight against corruption, fostering of democratic institutions and civil society.

We welcome the process of reviewing the European Neighbourhood Policy that applies the principle of differentiation towards partners.

We are grateful to the European Union for the assistance rendered over years, which was instrumental for the implementation of reforms and strengthening of institutional capacities of Armenia.

Along with discussions about the legal framework of our relations, together with corresponding bodies of the European Commission, the Armenian side is engaged in talks over our participation in different initiatives of the EU.

People-to-people contacts have their peculiar place in fostering of Armenia-EU ties, and we find free mobility of citizens as a key factor in further making our societies closer to each other. It has been almost two years now that the EU-Armenia Visa Facilitation and Readmission Agreements are being implemented, and we are convinced that time is ripe to move forward towards the dialogue on visa liberalization.
We touched upon a range of pressing international and regional issues, exchanged thoughts on the situation in the Middle East, Syria. We stressed the necessity of consolidation of the international community’s efforts in the fight against terrorism, that of the protection of the rights of minorities in the region. In this context, we welcomed Syria Cessation of Hostilities Accord, endorsed by the United Nations Security Council in support of the creation of conditions for ceasefire.

We discussed issues related to the migration crisis and flow of refugees. We informed that Armenia has sheltered nearly 20 thousands refugees from Syria, thus our country is the third largest recipient of Syrian refugees in Europe on per capita basis. We commend the possible assistance of the EU to Armenia on that matter.

Implementation of the agreement on Iran nuclear program was on the agenda of the negotiations, which creates wide opportunities for cooperation.

We reflected on the latest developments in the negotiation process on Nagorno-Karabakh issue, held within the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship. Ms. Mogherini reaffirmed EU’s unconditional support to the efforts of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs towards exclusively peaceful settlement of the issue, based on well-known Madrid Principles, proposed by the Co-Chairs. We share the view with the Co-Chairs and the EU that the maintenance of the status quo is not in any of the sides’ interests. However, it is obvious that destructive steps, rejection to the commitment of issue settlement exclusively through peaceful means, attempts to change the negotiation format, refusal to create mechanism for investigation of incidents, bellicose rhetoric leading to escalation of the situation, are harmful and lead to the maintenance of the status quo. We share the view that there is no alternative to the negotiations, to the peaceful settlement.

Concluding, I would like to highlight with satisfaction that Armenia-European Union relations are on a high level and have promising prospects. We are convinced that Ms. Federica Mogherini’s visit would give additional impetus to the development of our mutually beneficial cooperation, its further strengthening and expansion.