Lidington: Great Britain views Armenia as important partner

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan met with British Minister for Europe David Lidington who arrived in Yerevan today, according to the press service of Armenian Foreign Ministry.

Welcoming the guest, Minister Nalbandyan said: “Armenia attaches importance to the development of relations with the UK in both bilateral and multilateral formats. I should note with satisfaction that in recent years we witnessed an intensification of political links and I am sure that this tendency will continue”.

Expressing his gratitude for the warm reception, Minister Lidington said that the UK views Armenia as an important partner and his visit aims to give renewed impetus to cooperation with Armenia.

During talks the ministers discussed ways of deepening cooperation in political, trade, economic and other spheres.
In this connection E. Nalbandyan said that British businessmen’s interest in the promotion of trade and economic links with Armenia has recently increased.

The interlocutors expressed an opinion that the improvement of the legal contractual framework as well as the efficient implementation of dozens of signed documents is important in the development of relations. They noted that active inter-parliamentary cooperation has a special place in the promotion of bilateral ties.

Edward Nalbandyan and David Lidington touched upon cooperation of the two countries within the framework of international organizations.

Minister Nalbandyan presented in detail the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs on a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh problem, as well as the results of the summit of Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan held in Paris a week ago. David Lidington said the UK supports the Karabakh peace process under the aegis of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Issues on the agenda also included international and regional issues, in particular developments in Syria and Iraq and the Middle East and the negotiating process on Iran’s nuclear program.