On September 12, by the invitation of Sergey Martinov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Edward Nalbandian, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, arrived in Minsk on an official visit.

On the same day, Edward Nalbandian was received by Alexander Lukashenko, the President of the Republic of Belarus.

Welcoming Mr. Edward Nalbandian, Mr. Alexander Lukashenko mentioned that by the efforts of the leaders of the two countries, the Armenian-Belarusian relations had an unprecedented development in all spheres of the cooperation in recent years.

President Lukashenko stressed that there are all the preconditions for further strengthening of bilateral relations and expressed confidence that the sides would exert additional efforts towards that direction.

Conveying the greetings and best wishes of President Serzh Sargsyan to Mr. Alexander Lukashenko, Minister Nalbandian, in his turn, expressed satisfaction with the high-level of bilateral relations and dynamically developed cooperation, too.

The sides mutually stressed that the high-level dialogue, economic cooperation, parliamentary ties, decetralized cooepration and cultural exchanges give an opportunity for furhter deepening of the freindship between the two nations.

President Lukashenko and Minister Nalbandian touched upon various issues related to the development and deepening of the cooperation between Armenia and Belarus.

President Lukashenko requested to convey his warm greetings to the RA President Serzh Sargsyan.

The next meeting of the Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian was with his Belarusian counterpart Sergey Martinov, during which a wide range of bilateral, regional and international issues were discussed.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Belarus discussed the process of implementation of the agreements reached between the leaders of the two countries and the assignments presented by them.

The interlocutors touched upon the timetable of upcoming contacts to be held on the high-level.

The sides mutually noted the existence of an expanded legal framework, and simultaneously the necessity of further expanding it was stressed in order to maintain the future deepening of interaction.

Mr. Edward Nalbandian and Mr. Sergey Martinov touched upon the bilateral trade-economic interaction, the possibilities of its diversification and the works of the Intergovernmental Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Belarus also discussed the steps to be undertaken towards a more intensification of cultural exchanges.

Upon the request of Mr. Sergey Martinov, Mr. Edward Nalbandian briefed about the recent developments in the negotiations over the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

After the meeting, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Belarus signed under the program of consultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the two countries for 2011-2012.

The ceremony of the signing was followed by a joint briefing of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Belarus with the journalists.

Mr. Edward Nalbandian also visited the Victory Square of Minsk. After the check of the Honor Guard and the performance of the national anthem of Armenia and Belarus by the Army Band, Minister Nalbandian laid a wreath at the Memorial of Victims of the Great Patriotic War.