On June 20 Rio+20, the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

High-ranking officials from 192 countries, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and heads of many international organizations attended the Summit.

Rio+20 summit takes place once in ten years in this format and is a global event of great importance dedicated to the implementation of the goals of sustainable development.

The Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs delivered a speech at the Summit, touching upon Armenia’s steps undertaken towards the sustainable development and environmental governance. Minister Nalbandian talked about the factors impeding regional development, in particular about the blockade, which is carried out by violation of the principles of international law, about actions which direct the revenues acquired from the sale of natural resources that push forward the arms race.

Minister Nalbandian mentioned that Armenia was actively involved in the 1992 Summit and during the following 20 years, under difficult conditions of transitional period and the policy of blockade, imposed on Armenia by some neighboring countries, has put all its efforts to try to accomplish its commitments towards the sustainable development of the country.

“Since 1994 Sustainable development theory and practice have been included in the educational curriculum of our Universities. In 2002 the Government of Armenia established the National Council on Sustainable Development, and later the Council for the Coordination of Sustainable Development Program Activities.

In 2011 the National Coordination Committee was established for the purpose of coordinating preparatory work for ensuring the proper participation of Armenia to this summit. This committee has prepared and on the eve of this important event published a Rio+20 National Assessment Report, after intensive discussions and public debates.

Today Armenia acceded to 22 environmental Conventions and Protocols, and is actively cooperating in this regard with all relevant international organizations.

In the frames of this Summit on June 15 in Rio de Janeiro, Armenia, together with several international organizations and world leading universities, organized a side event and tried to share its views and experience on Environmental sustainability index, indicators and ecological footprint.

The Millennium Declaration has an entire section on peace, security and disarmament in which, alongside the commitment to overcome poverty and strive for development, governments pledge to “spare no effort to free peoples from the scourge of war”.

In that context, the proliferation of arms and weapons continues to pose a tremendous threat not only to peace and security but also, and increasingly, to economic and social development. It is unfortunate, that our region faces that danger.

Today, we are witnessing an unprecedented growth of the military budget of the neighboring Azerbaijan which has increased dramatically over the last few years.

The militaristic stance, adopted at the highest level in this country, poses a real threat to the regional security, stability and development,” underlined the Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Alongside other countries, Armenia was selected as a vice-president of Rio+20 Summit and respectively the meeting of the Summit was successively conducted by Vahram Kajoyan, the Head of the International Organizations Department of the MFA.