On November 15, Edward Nalbandian, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia met with Edgars Rinkevics, the Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Welcoming the guest, Minister Nalbandian recalled the warm reception provided by the Latvian side in Riga in January of this year and expressed satisfaction that accepting the invitation, today, Minister Rinkevics is in Armenia.

In his remarks, Minister Nalbandian stressed, “Armenia attaches great importance to the continuous development of the political dialogue with Latvia at the highest level. Recently considerable steps have been undertaken in that direction, the reciprocal visits of Armenian and Latvian Presidents and regular contacts between different agencies of the two countries took place.”

Expressing gratitude for the reception, Edgars Rinkevics mentioned that Latvia is interested in the development of mutually beneficial cooperation with Armenia and is committed to take efficient steps towards that direction.

During the meeting the interlocutors touched upon numerous questions related to the Armenian-Latvian bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

The importance of the implementation of the agreements reached during the Armenian President’s visit to Latvia last year was specially underlined, in particular agreements over the creation of inter-governmental committee, the first session of which is scheduled to be held in the first half of the next year.

The Ministers emphasized the importance to intensify activities of the friendship groups in the parliaments of both countries and to expand parliamentary cooperation.

The sides had a thorough talk on the intensification of trade and economic ties and expanding of its possibilities, including improvement of legal framework and holding of consultations between the MFAs.

The sides mutually expressed satisfaction with the considerable progress achieved by Armenia in the cooperation with the European Union and in the frames of the Eastern Partnership Program. In that context Latvia’s possible support to Armenia, as an EU member, was mentioned.

In the talks, the sides agreed upon the intensification of cultural exchanges, in particular upon Armenia’s participation in the events dedicated to the declaration of Riga as the European culture capital in 2014.

Minister Nalbandian presented the recent developments in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. The sides expressed mutual confidence that the resolution based on the principles of international law exclusively through peaceful means has no alternative.

The sides exchanged views on global agenda issues, Iran’s nuclear program and situation in Syria.

Joint press conference followed the meeting between the Armenia and Latvian Foreign Ministers.