On September 27, Edward Nalbandian, Foreign Minister of Armenia, met with Alan Duncan, UK Minister of State for Europe and the Americas, who arrived in Yerevan on an official visit.

The meeting started with a tête-à-tête conversation, then was continued in an expanded format, with participation of the delegations.

Greeting the guest, Minister Nalbandian noted that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and the United Kingdom and expressed hope that the first visit of the Minister of State will contribute to a further development of Armenian-British interstate ties.

Thanking for the reception, Minister Duncan noted that the United Kingdom attaches importance to relations with Armenia and underlined that the purpose of his visit is to promote bilateral cooperation.

The interlocutors noted with satisfaction that over the past 25 years Armenia and the United Kingdom have established effective cooperation in number of directions and there is a mutual willingness to extend the Armenian-British bilateral agenda.

During the meeting the sides exchanged views on deepening of political dialogue, promotion of active inter-parliamentary relations, steps towards joint programmes in the field of education and culture.

The agenda of the negotiations included the further promotion of trade-economic ties. In that context, Minister Nalbandian highlighted the appointment by the UK Prime Minister of the MP (Member of Parliament) Mark Pritchard as the Trade Envoy to Armenia.

A number of urgent regional and international issues was touched upon.

The Armenian Foreign Minister briefed his counterpart on the joint efforts of Armenia and the Minsk Group Co-Chair countries towards the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The meeting of Edward Nalbandian and Alan Duncan was followed by a joint press conference.