I am glad to welcome the Secretary of State for European Affairs of France Harlem Désir, who arrived in Yerevan to participate at the 31st session of the Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF). We used this opportunity to have a meeting, discuss issues on the agenda of, as we call them, privileged relations between the two states – Armenia and France. Surely, we touched upon the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, as, it is well-known France is one of the Co-Chair states. I presented to the Minister the situation created as a result of the cease-fire violations, provocations by Azerbaijan both along the border with Armenia and on the Line of Contact with Nagorno-Karabakh. In fact the situation is rather escalated.

I reaffirmed that Armenia would continue exerting joint efforts with the OSCE MG Co-Chairs towards exclusively peaceful settlement of the issue.

As Mr. Désir is Secretary of State for European Affairs of France, we touched upon Armenia-European Union relations, and reaffirmed the readiness of two sides to establish new legal framework for the cooperation. In this regard, we are full of hope that within the next few days, even maybe during the upcoming week, the EU will confirm the mandate of its negotiating team, and we will start negotiations with the European Union over drafting and conclusion of a respective document.

Of course, we reflected also on numerous regional and international issues. We touched upon the agenda of OIF Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs underway in Yerevan. Our cooperation within different international institutions was discussed.