Dear colleague, 

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am glad to welcome my good friend Mikheil Janelidze, Foreign Minister of Georgia, who is paying an official visit to Yerevan.

It is symbolic that a year ago Mr.Janelidze was the first high-ranking foreign guest, whom we welcomed at the new premises of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since that we have had numerous meetings both in Tbilisi and in the framework of international forums.

Our permanent intensive dialogue with Mr.Janelidze provides an opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues of the bilateral agenda, and to further our efforts aimed at strengthening and deepening our cooperation.

During the meeting we discussed the process of implementation of agreements reached by the leaders of our countries.

In recent years the Armenian-Georgian relations have been on a significant rise and are moving forward in a spirit of mutually beneficial cooperation.

Both sides regularly repeat that there are no problems between Armenia and Georgia, there are issues that are being solved through joint efforts. Our meeting today is yet another proof of that.

The stakeholder dialogue on stability in the region is an important component of our collaboration.

We have noted with satisfaction the progress that has been registered in economic cooperation. The work of the Joint Intergovernmental Committee is quite productive.

We have discussed numerous issues related to the expansion of cooperation in the fields of trade and economy, energy, development of transport infrastructure, tourism. We have touched upon the issue of improving further the existing comprehensive legal basis between our two states: today it includes more than 80 documents.

During the talks, we have reflected upon the concerns of the Georgian-Armenians and the steps being undertaken towards their resolution.

I have briefed my Georgian counterpart on the efforts exerted by Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to create conducive conditions for the advancement of settlement process of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In this regards, we consider important Georgia's continuous support to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs efforts.

We have also discussed a number of urgent regional and international issues.

Now, I would like to pass the floor to Minister of Foreign Affairs Janelidze.