Dear Nikos,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank my dear friend and colleague Nikos Kotzias for the invitation and exceptional warm welcome.

Armenia and Greece, our brotherly peoples are bound by the centuries old cordial relations, traditionally deep mutual sympathy, reciprocal support and solidarity.

We meet frequently with Minister Kotzias in different international formats. Recently I hosted him in Yerevan and now I am glad to be in Athens to continue our discussions.

Earlier today I had an honor to meet with the President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos and to exchange views on the Armenian-Greek relations.

My visit started yesterday with the lecture at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I would like to thank once again for the provided opportunity to share our approaches on the regional issues and some of the Armenian foreign policy priorities.

At our meeting with my colleague we have reviewed the implementation of the agreements, reached during last year’s official visit of the Armenian President to Greece.

As Minister Kotzias mentioned, we have discussed a wide range of issues of bilateral and multilateral agenda.

We touched upon the ways of further deepening our political dialogue, strengthening economic cooperation, boosting bilateral trade, partnership in the areas of defence, education, science, culture, tourism and many other fields.

We exchanged views on the potential of our economic relations that could be explored through the work of the intergovernmental commission and the organization of business forums. The possibilities of the engagement of the Greek companies in the free trade zones in Armenia, the use of the potential provided within the framework of EU-Armenia relations, prospects of development of cooperation between Greece and the Eurasian economic Union were among the issues discussed between us.

We highlighted the solid legal framework between our two countries that could serve as a basis for the further enhancement of our ties. In this regard during our meeting in Yerevan we agreed with Minister Kotzias to create a special working group between the Foreign Ministries of Armenia and Greece to take stock of what has been done and explore new avenues. I am glad that this group has already been established and even hold its first meeting this October here in Athens headed by Secretary General of the Armenian Foreign Ministry and Greek deputy Foreign Minister.

We also discussed in Yerevan with my colleague the possibilities of cooperation between sizable Armenian and Greek Diasporas. We continued exchange of views on this issue here today. I am glad that our two ministries are actively engaged in exploring the full potential of such ties.

We attached an importance to promoting cooperation between our Parliaments. We believe that bilateral visits of parliamentary delegations could enhance dialogue between our parliaments, as well as strengthen cooperation in the framework of international parliamentary assemblies.

Our talks were focused on the intensification of our interactions within the international organisations, notably the UN, the OSCE, Council of Europe and others.

As you probably know, next year Armenia will host the summit of the International Organisation of La Francophonie, which unites 84 countries, Greece among them. So, I presented to my colleague the preparations ahead of the Summit.

In a few days Armenia will assume chairmanship of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation, so we have touched upon the upcoming BSEC Ministerial meeting in Kiev.

Within the context of Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, we have exchanged views on prospects of development of cooperation between Armenia and the European Union.

We also discussed the urgent regional and international issues. We touched upon the Cyprus issue. Minister Kotzias presented the recent developments with this regard. Armenia supports the Greek and Cyprus efforts in this regard.

I briefed my colleague on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process, the efforts exerted by Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries to advance the peaceful settlement of the issue.

And of course we have an extensive exchange of views on a number of urgent regional and international issues.

Dear Nikos,

Thank you again for warm hospitality and fruitful discussions.