Foreign ministers of Armenia and Russia hold talks in Yerevan

Regular Armenian-Russian meetings are always substantial and fruitful, with an intense dialog being conducted, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan said at a joint press conference with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

“The visit of Mr. Lavrov to Yerevan and our meeting today create a good opportunity to discuss the implementation of the agreements reached by our presidents during the Russian president’s state visit to Armenia and at the subsequent meetings of the heads of our states. Each meeting of the two presidents gives us new guidelines and directions for work in the short and medium run.

“We noted with satisfaction that allied cooperation between our countries has positive dynamics in the political, economic, military-technical, humanitarian, inter-parliamentary and inter-regional spheres,” Nalbandyan said.

In his words, one set of issues during the talks was related to integration processes in Eurasian space. “We discussed in detail issues of Armenia’s entry into the Eurasian Union. We noted with satisfaction that the intergovernmental commissions on economic cooperation and military-technical cooperation and the inter-parliamentary commission work efficiently and relations between regions are developing successfully. About 70 regions of the Russian Federation have partnership ties and cooperate with Armenian regions,” Nalbandyan said.

“Armenian citizens encountered some difficulties after the Russian migration law took effect, which is a subject of our discussions now,” he noted.

According to the Armenian foreign minister, the sides discussed the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement. “We are grateful to Russia for its consistent efforts as a Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group aimed at a peaceful resolution of the conflict. A month ago we marked the 20th anniversary of the ceasefire, and we remember very well that thanks to efforts of the Russian side and the hard work of the Russian mediator we managed to work out a truce between Karabakh and Azerbaijan, with Armenian also joining it,” E. Nalbandyan said.

“We exchanged views on urgent regional and international issues such as the Ukrainian crisis, the situation in Syria, Iraq and the Middle East and touched upon the talks on the Iranian nuclear program. We cooperate actively and successfully in various international organizations – the UN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the BSEC. Naturally the closest cooperation exists within the framework of the CIS and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. A mechanism of regular consultations was established between Foreign Ministries. Dozens of consultations are conducted each year in accordance with a plan,” the Armenian minister said.