Hello, dear colleagues,

I am delighted to welcome my counterpart, the Foreign Minister of Slovakia Ivan Korčok, who is in Yerevan on an official visit.

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Slovakia, the relations between our two countries have developed in all dimensions, and today we reaffirmed that we should make efforts for the further strengthening of these relations.

First of all, this refers to the political dialogue: We have high-level political dialogue, which applies to both our bilateral and multilateral relations, our cooperation in various international platforms, and the mutual support provided within those platforms.

We also discussed our economic relations, the extensive and yet not utilized potential in this regard. In particular, we have much work to do and make joint efforts towards the implementation of joint programs in the spheres of energy, information technology, green energy development, as well as culture and science. We have also outlined concrete measures to be implemented in the near future through joint efforts.

I expressed the gratitude of the Republic of Armenia to Slovakia and the Slovak people for the support provided to our country both during the pandemic and the recent war against Artsakh, as well as for the position of Slovakia following the war. This refers to the positions of both the executive authorities and the resolutions adopted by the Slovak Parliament.

Of course, we discussed in detail the situation in our region, the large-scale aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh - the Nagorno-Karabakh and the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the crimes committed during the days of aggression. We spoke about the neglect of the provisions of the statement by Azerbaijan after the signing of the trilateral statement, in particular, first of all, the non-return of Armenian prisoners of war and forcibly captured civilians.

We touched upon the preservation of cultural heritage, as well as the tension on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, and provocative actions by Azerbaijan, i.e. the infiltration into the territory of the Republic of Armenia. We spoke about the need to resolve all existing issues through peaceful negotiations, in particular, we highlighted the need for continuation of the peace process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship.

This is all for this moment. Welcome, Mr. Minister.