On 15 December, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia Paruyr Hovhannisyan participated in the 47th meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) held online.

Commending the achievement of the agreement on important issues reached under the current presidency, particularly the adoption of the 2024 budget, the completion of the process of updating the fundamental document “BSEC Economic Agenda”, and the reactivation of the Project Development Fund (PDF).

In his statement, Paruyr Hovhannisyan presented the national macroeconomic policies and legislative reforms and emphasized Armenia’s continuous strong economic growth as well as significant increase of foreign trade volumes, including with several BSEC member states.

He reiterated Armenia’s position on unblocking the communication links in the region on the basis of sovereignty, territorial integrity and national jurisdiction. The Deputy Minister briefed on the “Crossroads of Peace” project, recently presented by the Armenian Government, which, through regional connectivity, will contribute to strengthening economic cooperation and political dialogue between the countries of the region. 

The Deputy Minister drew the participants’ attention to the issue of the flow of more than 100,000 forcibly displaced refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia in September this year, which seriously affected Armenia’s socio-economic development. He highlighted the measures by the Government of Armenia to address the life-saving and early recovery needs of the refugees, among them 30 thousand children, with the support of the international partners.

The Council of Ministers endorsed a number of important resolutions and decisions and at the conclusion, the Chairmanship-in-Office of BSEC was handed over to Albania.