On May 30, in Yerevan, Edward Nalbandian, Foreign Minister of Armenia, had a meeting with Lamberto Zannier, Secretary General of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. 

The meeting started with a tete-a-tete discussion of Minister Nalbandian and Secretary General Zannier and continued with participation of delegations.

Minister Nalbandian noted with satisfaction Armenia’s involvement across all the dimensions of the OSCE activity and considered the implementation of the OSCE programmes in Armenia to be exemplary.

Foreign Minister of Armenia expressed regret with regards to the discontinuation of the mandate of the OSCE office in Yerevan, the only remaining office in our region, emphasizing at the same time that Azerbaijan did not recoil abusing its right of veto in the OSCE and thus blocking the further operation of the Office. Minister Nalbandian expressed hope that activities and programmes implemented by the office will be continued within other formats.

Secretary General Zannier touched upon the process of discontinuation of the mandate for the operation of the OSCE Yerevan office, expressing regret that the Organization failed to prevent that process. Zannier also noted that halting of the activities of the Office in Yerevan does not mean that the OSCE will interrupt or suspend the implementation of number of programmes in Armenia and underlined that Armenia and the OSCE have an extensive agenda, therefore the sides will find other formats to continue active cooperation.

During the meeting the interlocutors also touched upon the Parliamentary elections held in Armenia on April 2. It was stated that the unprecedented number of observers monitored the elections. They highlighted the value of the assessments of the international observation missions, according to which the elections were well organized, fundamental human rights were respected and the voting results reflect the will of the people of Armenia.

Edward Nalbandian presented to his interlocutor the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries aimed at advancing the peaceful settlement process of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. An importance was attached to the implementation of the agreements reached during the last year’s Summits in Vienna and St. Petersburg.

During the talks, the sides also discussed issues of the OSCE agenda, process of implementation of the priorities of the Austrian Chairmanship, as well as numerous urgent international and regional security-related issues.

The meeting was followed by the joint press-conference of Minister Nalbandian and Secretary General Zannier.