On December 16, the EU Eastern Partnership Senior Officials Meeting was held in Brussels attended by the representatives six partner countries and all the EU member states. The Armenian delegation to that annual meeting was headed by Garen Nazarian, Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia.

The meeting aimed to examine the ongoing multilateral cooperation within the EaP framework as well as possible expectations and approaches of the participants ahead of the 2017 Summit.

In his statement, the Deputy Foreign Minister touched upon the outcomes of the EaP Ministerial Informal Dialogue held this November in Yerevan, spoke about the ongoing negotiations over the Armenia-EU new framework agreement noting that in 2017 the process will enter into the final stage.

Garen Nazarian also touched upon the continuous sectoral dialogue with the EU and emphasized that it is one of the cornerstones of cooperation within the Eastern Partnership. He expressed gratitude to EU member states for the decision of the EU Council to approve the mandate of the European Commission to launch negotiations over the Common Aviation Area with Armenia and added that for a landlocked country, which is also under a blockade, the meaning of such an agreement is essential, particularly, from the perspective of promoting business contacts and expanding trade and economic exchanges.

Referring to agreements with the EU on visa facilitation and readmission Garen Nazarian welcomed the statement made last month by the European Commission reaffirming the decision to start the dialogue on visa liberalisation with Armenia.
In his statement, Deputy Foreign Minister Nazarian also touched upon other issues currently under discussion with the EU.

The meeting of senior officials was followed by the working meeting of the heads of delegations of the EaP countries with Pedro Serrano, Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS).