Dear colleagues, 

We welcome you in Yerevan, in the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I am very glad to see you all.

Today we are holding a meeting of Foreign Ministers, and tomorrow we will have a regular joint meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, the Council of Defense Ministers and the Committee of Secretaries of Security Councils of the CSTO in person. We will discuss very important issues: important for our countries and for the CSTO in general.

For us this meeting is also important, because this is our first tete-a-tete meeting in the wake of the September aggression of Azerbaijan against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia.

We have about two dozen documents on our agenda regarding issues of foreign policy coordination, military-political cooperation, new threats and challenges, and of course, the situation in the South Caucasus generally.

Most of the projects and issues have already been agreed upon. Yesterday and today, the Conciliation Commission has been working under the leadership of Stanislav Zas.

Hopefully we will have a productive exchange of views and I suggest commencing our work.

Thank You.