YEREVAN, 21 MAY, ARMENPRESS. President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, who is on a working visit to the Republic of Latvia, participated today in the meeting of leaders of the European People’s Party and the Eastern Partnership and gave a speech.

As the Public Relations and Mass Media Department of the Structure to the Office of the President of the Republic of Armenia reports to “Armenpress”, Serzh Sargsyan’s speech reads as follows:

“Respectable President Daul,

Dear colleagues,

First, I would like to thank President Daul for inviting me to participate in the meeting in this format and for organizing it at a high level.

Mr. President,

Armenia’s European agenda remains one of the priorities of our foreign policy, and we are committed to deepen and further enhance our cooperation with the European Union. The Eastern Partnership is facing difficult times, but we don’t believe it can’t do anything anymore. Yes, three of the partners are at a certain level of relations with the European Union, and others are at a different level, due to the particularities of their situation. Therefore, we need to understand the pivot that links partners and the European Union.

It’s very important to maintain the commonality that unites us as a Partnership. We are more than convinced that all the partner countries’ loyalty to the general values, the development of democracy, human rights, rule of law, peace and the securing of stability in the region must continue to lie at the core of that commonality.

We believe that the accession of partners to any structure doesn’t restrict their cooperation with other structures. That’s why by acceding to the Eurasian Economic Union, Armenia continues to be committed to the deepening and expansion of relations with the European Union.

In the current difficult geopolitical conditions in Europe, Armenia not only avoided creating more tension in Europe with its balanced policy, but also managed to build its policy on the basis of compatibility of different integration systems, as well as the principles of balance and multi-vector cooperation.

For a long time now, the troubling developments unfolding in Ukraine, one of the partnering countries, have caused a serious crisis. I hope the working style of looking ahead and giving correct evaluations of everything will help us win, and solutions will be found by respecting each other’s problems and understanding each other, which is the only path that is stable, and that the combined efforts for a comprehensive regulation in all stages of the processes will prevail over the dissemination of public statements with finding faults of one side, which is a temptation that will lead us nowhere.

Talking about the securing of cooperation and security in Europe, I must touch upon the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict continues to be a serious challenge for security in the region and in Europe. Azerbaijan continues with its provocations, threats and anti-Armenian propaganda, prolonging the regulation of the conflict. The anti-Armenian campaign is being carried out with crude violations of human rights in Azerbaijan, and the regime’s opponents have been viewed as Armenia’s agents for a long time now. The partners in Europe must react to the irresponsible steps of Azerbaijan posing a threat to our regional security. There is a need for an adequate evaluation of those steps. So, I urge you to not give in to Azerbaijan’s destructive initiatives at different international levels and not share the responsibility for the escalation of tension in the region.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Taking the opportunity, I would like to express once again my gratitude for the adoption of the “Armenian Genocide and European Values” Resolution on the occasion of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide on 3 March 2015. I highly appreciate the contributions of the European People’s Party and President Daul personally to the adoption of the resolution on Armenian Genocide condemnation by the European Parliament on 15 April 2015. Thank you, Mr. Daul, for accepting my invitation to visit Yerevan on April 24^th.

In the end, I would like to reaffirm that the Republican Party of Armenia attaches great importance to the close collaboration with the EPP, the results of which are clear to us all. In this regard, I praise the membership of the youth organization of the Republican Party of Armenia to the Youth of the European People’s Party.

Thank you."