On May 2 the regular meeting of Senior Officials of MFA and Heads of Diplomatic Missions was launched at the conference hall of Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex.

During the consultations the President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan delivered an extensive speech on Armenia’s foreign policy.

The Head of state touched upon current issues of foreign policy agenda, the process of implementation of projects of strategic importance, existing challenges, and the future activities of MFA in surmounting them. President Sargsyan also presented current level of building relations with partner countries and addressed the prospects. He touched upon the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process in the frameworks of OSCE Minsk Group, the state of affairs 20 years after the establishment of cease-fire.

“Enough time has passed since my last meeting with the leadership of the diplomatic service of the Republic Of Armenia despite the fact that you have regularly held regional meetings and I visited the MFA central apparatus 2 months ago. Besides, in recent times I have had numerous opportunities to hold meetings and talk with many of you. This gathering offers us a great chance to touch upon our foreign policy agenda, the traditional, as well as newly emerging international and regional challenges and the ways to respond them.

Unfortunately, I have to state that serious tendencies of instability can be noticed in the international arena. Tensions and uncertainties keep on increasing. It necessitates further improving the activities of our diplomatic missions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other relevant bodies, as well as reinforcing inter-ministerial collaboration. A diplomat should be able to thoroughly examine, analyze and assess the situation, forecast future developments and offer solutions stemming from national interests. We often mention that human capital is the most valuable resource. Thus, an expectant and reactive diplomat who dodges his responsibilities is an inadmissible luxury for a state like ours. We expect you to be actively engaged in all the areas in which Armenia and Armenians have direct or indirect interests,” said the President of Armenia at the meeting with the leadership of the RA diplomatic service.

The President talked about the exertion and coordination of joint efforts of all Armenians to be implemented ahead of the Armenian Genocide Centenary, adoption of a comprehensive and thorough approach to that issue, the necessity of properly organized various events dedicated to the Armenian Genocide Centenary.

In his speech the President touched upon the regional issues, the Armenian-Turkish relations, the process of Armenia’s membership to the Customs Union and the economic relations under those circumstances.

President Sargsyan stressed the importance of Armenia’s assistance to the large Armenian community of Syria facing all the risks and consequences of the Syrian crises. The President highly praised the activities of the Embassy of RA to Syria and the Consulate-General which have rendered great assistance to the Armenians in Syria throughout this time and thanked the Armenian diplomats working in that country for their brave and devoted service.

The President spoke about the practical steps of our country aimed at contribution to providing regional and international security, underscored that Armenia performs its duties in a full-fledged manner prioritizing allied relations.

Serzh Sargsyan stressed the importance of the cooperation between Armenia and the European Union, as well as continuous activities aimed at deepening and strengthening of bilateral relations with European countries.

The President drew the attention of the Senior Officials of RA diplomatic service to the need of activation of the economic dimension of diplomacy. The President underscored that in order to attract foreign investments to our country, it is necessary to make the Armenian economy more visible and offer a chance to take the full advantage of making an investment in Armenia. Amongst them, according to the President Armenia’s, the decision to join the Eurasian Economic Union is of great importance.

Serzh Sargsyan also touched upon the quality of consular services and stressed that despite the important reforms made in the consular sphere in recent years, aimed at facilitating the procedures of rendering consular services to citizens, there is still much to do. The President assured that Armenian citizens are the first to assess each reform and innovation, and the primary indicator of consular services is measured only by their feedback and satisfaction. According to the President, rendering quality services requires high quality human resources and efforts are being exerted in that direction as well. Serzh Sargsyan highly emphasized the role of the Diplomatic School of Armenia in recruiting high quality personnel to the diplomatic service. Concluding his speech, the President wished the Senior Officials of the diplomatic service successes and answered their questions.

The President gave directives to the Heads of Diplomatic Missions.
In his speech, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian attached an importance to the outline of implementation of the tasks set and directives made by the President during the Ambassadorial meeting. Minister Nalbandian touched upon the diplomatic steps by Armenia in bilateral and multilateral platforms, our state’s involvement in international and regional organizations, parliamentary and cultural diplomacy, and the enhancement of the efficiency of activities by Diplomatic missions.

“The fact that Armenia established relations with more than 160 states, is a member of nearly 90 international organizations, has signed over 1800 international treaties and agreements is a striking indicator of the voluminous work carried out by the Armenian Diplomats serving at the MFA and over 60 Missions abroad.

The Diplomat’s Day took its well-deserved place in the list of Armenia’s official public holidays as an assessment of diplomat’s work. Today Armenia is able to make its voice heard at various international platforms over different issues of its primary concern, some of which are on international agenda. Armenia has proven itself to be a reliable partner; its balanced foreign policy is perceived in numerous capitals.

Armenia has its continuous input in the maintenance of international peace and security, the development of friendly relations based on equal rights and self-determination and other principles of the International Law, peaceful settlement of disputes, international collaboration in solution of economic, and social, cultural and humanitarian issues.

Our diplomacy is focused on the development of economic, cultural, humanitarian ties, contribution to the parliamentary diplomacy, development of decentralized cooperation, the strengthening of Armenia-Diaspora ties, the preservation of the Armenian historical and cultural heritage abroad, the protection of the interests of our citizens, inhabiting in different states, particularly support of our nationals in emergency situations.

There are even more tasks and activities set, and I hope that our meeting gives impetus to quite an active, effective, consecutive, coordinated activities for the proper implementation of Armenia’s foreign policy”, said Minister Nalbandian.

During his address at the Ambassadorial meeting the Speaker of the National Assembly Galust Sahakyan presented the international activities by the Parliament of Armenia, inter-parliamentary ties, the activities of the NA delegations to the parliamentary assemblies of international organizations, cooperation between NA and MFA, and issues related to the activation of parliamentary diplomacy. After the address the NA President awarded the Ambassadors of Armenia to Lithuania, Denmark, Italy and the Czech Republic with the NA Medals of Honor for the strengthening of interstate ties and great input during the diplomatic service.

The Prime-minister Hovik Abrahamyan delivered a speech at the Ambassadorial meeting, introducing Armenia’s economic development concept, the improvement of Armenia’s business climate and activities for the attraction of foreign investments, upcoming programs and planned events on the development of different fields of Armenia’s economy; touched upon the expectations from our Diplomatic Missions in foreign economic policy.

The Prime Minister stressed that the Government would deepen active and initiating foreign economic policy, taking the most out of the capabilities of economic integration, particularly, talking about Armenia’s membership in the Eurasian Union and formation of the new legal framework for European Union-Armenia cooperation.
Hovik Abrahamyan assured that the Government would take all the necessary steps in making the activities by RA Diplomatic Missions more effective and in providing necessary support to it.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Karen Mirzoyan delivered an address at the consultations.

In his speech, Karen Mirzoyan presented priority guidelines of NKR foreign policy and NKR stance on the peace process of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict.

NKR Foreign Minister positively assessed the level of cooperation between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the two Armenian states, highlighted the importance of its further development and broadening for the successes in dealing with the issues of all-Armenian importance.

The speech by the Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan and the following discussions covered Armenia-Diaspora cooperation, pan-Armenian events, the activities of the Armenian communities of different countries, works undertaken in the fields of Armenian studies and preservation of Armenian identity, the initiatives and programs of the Ministry of Diaspora, cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Diaspora.

The Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan was among the speakers at the Ambassadorial meeting, who mentioned the cooperation with the MFA and the Diplomatic Missions in the activities of strengthening and the development of cultural ties with states, organization of Culture days and weeks.

The participants of meeting held comprehensive discussions over the issues of Armenia’s foreign policy, Karabakh peace process, the activities in bilateral and multilateral platforms, current issues of international agenda, educational and personnel issues of a diplomatic service.

Before the launch of consultations the participants laid wreath to the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial and paid tribute to the memory of victims of the Armenian Genocide. 

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