Indian Republic Day reception in Yerevan: Officials laud growing bilateral relationship

Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan and other officials attended India’s Republic Day reception in Yerevan. 

Nilakshi Saha Sinha, India’s Ambassador to Armenia, said in her speech that on this day in 1950 India became a Republic by adopting its Constitution.

The Ambassador emphasized that 2024 was an important year for India’s democracy: the country successfully held large-scale free and fair general elections, while the National Democratic Alliance led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was re-elected for a third consecutive time.

Among other achievements, the Ambassador emphasized that in 2024 India became the fourth country to successfully achieve an unmanned docking in space.

She said that the relationship between India and Armenia also developed in 2024.

“The bilateral relations between India and Armenia recorded progress and 2024 was marked with further strengthening of the ties, including regular political exchanges and parliamentary contacts, institutionalization of defense cooperation, expansion of trade, cultural and educational ties,” the Ambassador said. She highlighted the first Yerevan Dialogue forum, which was developed at the example of the Indian Raisina Dialogue and jointly organized by the Armenian foreign ministry and the Indian Observer Research Foundation (ORF). The second forum will take place this year.

The Indian Ambassador also highlighted the Armenian Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan’s visit to the country.

Ambassador Nilakshi Saha Sinha emphasized that in 2024 Armenia became a full member of the International Solar Alliance. India and Armenia displayed unwavering support to each other in international platforms, she said.

“Cooperation, especially capacity building deserves special attention,” the ambassador added. She said that the number of Armenian staffers and representatives of the civil society undergoing training in India has been growing, and a group of State Revenue Committee staffers has just completed a training course in India. “We are committed to the further expansion of our development partnership.”

The Ambassador announced that the embassy will continue organizing Indian film festivals.

Ambassador Nilakshi Saha Sinha emphasized that Armenia is an important partner for India in South Caucasus.

“We are glad to see that Armenia is consistently working to establish peace in the region. India, the country of Apostle of Peace Mahatma Gandhi, has always been in favor of peaceful dialogue for conflict resolution,” the Indian Ambassador said.

Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, congratulating India on Republic Day, emphasized that the people of India wrote a new page in its centuries-old history by becoming a major democracy.

“The principles of justice, liberty, equality and brotherhood enshrined in the Constitution are the expression of will of the Indian people’s struggle for independence. Armenia treats India’s successes and achievements with affinity. Although our countries are geographically far from each other, we are united by the rich historical past, democratic values and deep respect for each other’s cultural legacy,” the Armenian Deputy PM said.

The bilateral ties are based on the centuries-old friendship between the two peoples, which in turn are based on mutual respect and trust. The comprehensive deepening and development of relations with India is among the Armenian foreign policy priorities.

“India continues to have important significance for Armenia as a significant actor in the international arena. Today we are pleased to note that in the past few years we succeeded in achieving a new milestone in our cooperation in all directions. We are determined to maximally utilize untapped potential in our bilateral ties and elevate the friendship between our peoples to a new qualitative level,” Grigoryan said, adding that Yerevan attaches great importance to development of partnership with India as part of regional and global initiatives for the benefit of advancing universal goals of peace and security.