On November 13, a meeting between the Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan and the Minister for Europe of the United Kingdom Leo Docherty took place in London, which marked the launch of the Armenia-UK Strategic dialogue.

The meeting began in the format of a tête-à-tête, then continued in an enlarged format with the participation of the delegations of the two countries.

The both interlocutors emphasized that the recent activation of the high-level political dialogue between Armenia and the United Kingdom, the launch of the Strategic dialogue indicate the readiness of the parties to raise the Armenia-United Kingdom partnership to a qualitatively new level, and the efforts being made in that direction.

During the meeting, the broad agenda of bilateral relations between the two countries was discussed. The existing cooperation in a number of the fields, including political, trade-economic, security, innovation, people-to-people contacts as well as prospects for its expansion were touched upon.

The sides thoroughly discussed the issues of security and stability in the South Caucasus, the process of normalisation of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In the context of the latter, Minister Mirzoyan stressed the importance of Azerbaijan's expression of a public commitment to move forward in the peace process based on the principles reflected in the statement adopted after the quadrilateral meeting in Granada in October, as well as the active participation of international partners on the matter.

In the context of unblocking regional communications, Minister Mirzoyan presented the "Crossroads of the Peace" project developed by Armenia, emphasizing that it can bring  benefits for the stability and development of Armenia and the region as a whole.

The interlocutors also discussed the forced displacement of more than 100,000 Armenians as a result of ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh and the steps being taken to address the primary needs and rights of the Nagorno-Karabakh people.

After the meeting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and the Minister of European Affairs of the United Kingdom briefly commented and summed up the discussions.

Leo Docherty- Well, if I can just say a sincere thank you to your excellency. It's been a really positive discussion during this inaugural opening UK Armenia strategic dialogue. I think what's clear to me is that there's a huge amount of positive energy and opportunity in terms of strengthening and deepening our bilateral relationship. We are very proud of the cooperation that exists whether it be in defense and security or in terms of trade and commerce and we really recognize the responsible and positive approach of your government. It's an attitude of Peace building of wanting to develop commercial links not just to the UK but right across the caucuses so as a responsible regional player we really value the relationship that we have with Armenia. I'm very grateful for the time you've given me today sir and I think this has been a very good start to our formal strategic dialogue, so I hope there are going to be many others after today. Thank you very much indeed for your time.

Ararat Mirzoyan - Well, Minister, thank you. First of all, I would like to express our gratitude for the invitation and for the very constructive and efficient conversation, discussions that we had. Basically, in conclusion we have a joint statement reflecting on these spheres and directions that we talked about. What I would like to highlight in addition is that this was a very good opportunity to speak not only about our bilateral agenda, not only to once again reaffirm our commitment to deepen and enrich our bilateral relations, but also to thank the British side for supporting Armenia’s democratic reforms and peace building agenda. Thank you once again Minister.