Edward Nalbandian and Sergey Lavrov discussed the preparatory works of the upcoming visit of the President of Russia to Armenia

On November 18 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Edward Nalbandian who paid a one-day working visit to Moscow met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

After the tete a tete conversation between Edward Nalbandian and Sergey Lavrov in the House of Receptions of the MFA of the Russian Federation the negotiations continued in the presence of delegations.

Greeting the Foreign Minister of Armenia, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia noted that the meetings on ministerial level give an opportunity to follow the progress of the implementations of arrangements made between the Presidents of both states and this meeting also is an occasion to touch upon the issues of the development in the areas of political, economic, cultural, inter-parliamentary and decentralized cooperation and expanding legal framework.

Expressing gratitude for the invitation to visit Moscow, the warm reception and the detailed negotiations Edward Nalbandian stated that the working meetings between two Ministers are periodical. “This meeting is important in the sense that it is dedicated to the preparation of the upcoming visit of the President of Russia to Armenia at the beginning of December. This is a good opportunity to discuss the progress of the implementation of arrangements made between the Heads of States during the meeting on September 3.”- Minister Nalbandian stated.

The sides also discussed the integration processes in the Eurasian area and the preparatory works towards the accession of Armenia to the Customs Union.
Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Russia had also a detailed conversation on a wide circle of agenda issues. Ministers discussed the process of harmonizing new agreements which are going to be signed during the upcoming meeting.

The agenda of the negotiations also included issues of foreign policy coordination, cooperation in the framework of the international organizations- the UN, OSCE, CSTO, CIS, CoE, BSEC, and other international platforms. In this context Minister Lavrov congratulated upon the successful chairmanship of Armenia in the Council of Europe.

Both sides expressed confidence for the established intensive cooperation between the Foreign Ministries of Armenia and Russia and made an arrangement to elaborate and sign the program of 2014-2015 consultations between the Foreign Ministries.

The framework of the talks included also bilateral military-political and military-technical partnership which is directed towards the provision of security in the Southern Caucasus.

During the meeting the Ministers also had an exchange of views concerning Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process. In this context Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia expressed gratitude for the consistent efforts of Russia along with other Co-Chair Countries of the OSCE Minsk Group towards the exceptionally peaceful resolution of the issue based on the principles of non use of force or threat of force, equality and self-determination of peoples and territorial integrity which are considered as an integrated whole.

Both sides stressed the importance of the meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Vienna on November 19.

Ministers also had an exchange of thoughts concerning the economic cooperation and issues of international and regional agenda.

Edward Nalbandian invited Sergey Lavrov to pay an official visit to Armenia.
The meeting of the Ministers was followed by a joint press conference.