Armenian FM lauds strong French support for peace efforts

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan highly appreciated French support to the peace efforts in South Caucasus during a joint press conference with FM Stéphane Séjourné on Monday. 

Mirzoyan lauded the “unique” Armenian-French relationship that is based on the strong friendship between the two peoples and governments.

The Armenian FM said he visited with his French counterpart the Vedi Reservoir which is currently under construction. “This is a very concrete example of the Armenia-French partnership and friendship, but this is only one of the programs we have in our agenda, and hopefully we will see more such initiatives,” Mirzoyan said. He also stressed France’s strong support to the deepening of the Armenia-EU partnership and increasing the level of democracy.

“As you know we officially launched the visa liberalization dialogue with the EU, and there has been a decision that Armenia will receive support under the Peace Facility. As you all know, the Armenia-Azerbaijan border has been under monitoring for over two years by the EU monitoring mission,” Mirzoyan said, underscoring French support in these issues. 

Speaking about the regional situation and stability, FM Mirzoyan reaffirmed that Armenia is committed to the peace agenda. He reminded that Armenia recently conveyed to Azerbaijan a new version of a draft peace treaty which includes the articles that have been fully agreed upon between Yerevan and Baku. “I’d like to once again highlight French support to this process and to Armenia, French support to the establishment of peace, to this vision. I’d like to express gratitude for all of this, and say that your support is very significant,” the Armenian FM said.

He said Armenia is ready to sign the peace treaty with Azerbaijan as soon as possible under the terms that have already been agreed upon. “An agreement that basically the two countries would recognize each other’s territorial integrity based on the Alma Ata Declaration, a document which defines, among others, that the borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan are the borders that existed at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union,” Mirzoyan said.

Mirzoyan said he also discussed with his French counterpart multilateral partnership in international platforms, where the two countries have always supported each other.