Dear Minister, dear friend, dear Margus,

I am delighted to be here and I would like, first of all, to express my appreciation for the warmest welcome that was extended to me and my delegation. Indeed, this is the second time within six months that we met, but also during these months, we have had several phone conversations, we were constantly in touch, and we are happy to know that the political dialogue between Estonia and Armenia is developing, as well as our relations in different areas. Both then and now, we had a lot to discuss and outline our expectations in bilateral agenda as well as cooperation in different formats.

Dear attendees,  

I note with satisfaction that we have indeed succeeded in building a strong political dialogue and partnership based on common principles and shared commitment for a prosperous and more secure future for our countries. Independence, sovereignty, and decisiveness to further enhance democracy and democratic principles, these are the values that bring our like-minded countries and peoples closer and closer. 

Now it is a ripe time that we expand our partnership to different sectors and build partnerships in targeted, key for our societies fields. We believe that the economic component in bilateral relations should be enhanced to boost trade and investment. And for that, we have a huge potential to use the innovation and high tech where both Armenia and Estonia are making significant progress. On the one hand, Estonia’s remarkable achievements in IT, digitalization, innovation, cybersecurity and, on the other hand, Armenia’s willingness to bring more change in this regard, both into the public and private sectors, create ideal ground for mutually beneficial cooperation. It also relates to broadening our cooperation in education, tourism, as well as energy, culture and elsewhere.

Also, we appreciate the resumption of development cooperation between our countries where priority areas of cooperation are education, democracy and good governance, poverty reduction and entrepreneurship. 

Besides bilateral cooperation, we have developed very positive dynamics of engagements and mutual support in multilateral formats where we very often share the main priorities and support each other’s candidacies.  

The bigger mozaic of our partnership, of course, includes the activities in the format of the European Union, where we have multilayer cooperation: implementation of already existing arrangements, including for strengthening Armenia’s resilience and diversifying the economy, but also looking beyond, for more prospects. Here, I appreciate Estonia’s participation in the EU monitoring mission in Armenia as well as the expressed support for the start of the visa liberalization dialogue. We hope that jointly we will soon reach new important milestones.

Dear colleagues, 

Today, we have also discussed regional topics, the overall geopolitical situation, and ongoing challenges. Following our earlier conversations, I briefed my counterpart on recent developments in the South Caucasus, including the process of normalization of relations with our neighbours. 

With Türkiye, Armenia is ready to fully normalize relations, establish diplomatic relations and open the borders. During and as a result of our dialogue with our Turkish counterparts, we already came to concrete agreements to open and outline the steps that can be undertaken towards full normalization. And speaking about opening the border for third-country nationals, but also Armenian and Turkish citizens who hold diplomatic passports. We continuously reconfirm our determination to this arrangement, and I truly believe that it is already the time to implement the arrangements, to see the things happening on the ground. 

When it comes to our relations with Azerbaijan, again, we have been engaged in negotiations, and we almost finalised the text of the draft of the peace treaty. Armenia is ready to completely finalize the text within a month and sign the peace treaty with Azerbaijan. I cannot say that we have seen the positive reaction of our Azerbaijani counterparts to this proposal to sign the peace treaty within a month, but the dedication to the peace agenda and determination of Armenia to normalize relations with Azerbaijan and to recognize each other’s territorial integrity on the basis of the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration and to continue the process of delimitation on the basis of the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991 is there. 

I truly believe that we do have the momentum to close the page of the conflict in the South Caucasus and bring peace to our region and I truly believe that this peace will be beneficial for all the peoples and countries in the region. We will of course continue working in that direction and count on the strong support of our partners interested in stability and durable peace in the South Caucasus.

Dear friend,

Concluding my remarks, I would also like to once again express appreciation  for the warm welcome, for the support you show to the democratization and democratic reforms in Armenia, to the European aspirations of citizens of Armenia and also to the peace agenda and bringing peace to South Caucasus. Thank you so much.