On June 23 the meeting of Edward Nalbandian, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Sergei Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, who is having an official visit in Yerevan, took place.

Following the tete-a-tete meeting of Edward Nalbandian and Sergei Lavrov, the negotiations continued in the presence of delegations.

Welcoming the Foreign Minister of Russia, Minister Nalbandian mentioned that regular meetings on the ministerial level create an opportunity to discuss the process of implementation of agreements reached by the Presidents of both states, issues of the development of cooperation in political, economic, humanitarian, inter-parliamentary areas, exchanged views over regional and international issues.

Expressing gratitute for the invitation and warm reception, Minister Lavrov said, “I am glad to visit Yerevan once again. A tradition is formed of paying official mutual visits annually, also we hold frequent meetings in Yerevan, Moscow and in the frameworks of different international conferences, and that is quite natural for two allied states and strategic partners.”

The Foreign ministers of RA and RF thoroughly touched upon the wide range of issues of bilateral agenda, including military-political and military-technical cooperation, discussed the works in progress on the expansion of the legal frameworks.

During the negotiations the sides discussed in details the process of Armenia’s joining to the Eurasian Union.

Both sides expressed satisfaction with the efficient cooperation established between the MFAs of RA and RF. They stressed that the two countries effectively cooperate in international organizations, particularly in the UN, OSCE, CSTO, CIS, CoE, BSEC and in other international platforms.

At the meeting the Ministers exchanged thoughts over the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. In this context, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia expressed his gratitude for the continuous efforts exerted by Russia, along with the other Co-Chairs, towards exclusively peaceful settlement of the issue.

The Ministers talked about the steps undertaken towards the expansion of economic cooperation. It was stressed that Russia is Armenia’s pivotal trade partner. Satisfaction was expressed with the increase of turnover by 10%, comprising 1,445 billion USD.

The sides commended the activities of the inter-governmental, inter-parliamentary commissions, decentralized cooperation between RA regions and approximately 70 RF federal subjects.

The Ministers touched upon the problems, that have emerged as a consequence of the amendments introduced in the Russian Immigration Law, faced by the citizens of RA, and the ways to resolve them.

The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Russia exchanged thoughts in detail over the issues of regional and international agendas.

The sides touched upon the Ukrainian crisis, the situation in Syria, Iraq and generally the situation in the Middle East, current talks over the Iranian nuclear program.

The meeting of the Ministers was followed by a joint press conference.

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