YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. Before the meeting at the reception house of the Russian MFA, FMs Edward Nalbandian and Sergey Lavrov opened the exhibition dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Russia.

As “Armenpress” was informed from the press service of MFA Armenia, the Armenian Foreign Minister said,

“Honorable Mr. Lavrov,

Friends,

I wish to express my gratitude to all those who organized this exhibition dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our two states. Today we herald the launch of the events dedicated to the quarter century jubilee.

The historical documents presented in this exhibition are the impressive panorama of the path we have passed together starting from the day that is worth remembering – April 3, 1992, when a new page of Armenian-Russian relations was opened. Of course, the Armenian and Russian peoples are linked by firm friendly contacts that have passed through the challenges of history during centuries.

We have always stood side by side both during peace time and war. And today the Armenian-Russian relations are exemplary model of bilateral cooperation, perhaps the most successful and effective in the post-Soviet area.

Armenia and Russia are united by allied partnership. It’s impossible to be allies in one sphere, and not to be in another. Relations of such a quality are demonstrated by the entire volume of the inter-state cooperation. The close external political partnership, productive military-political and military-technical cooperation, successful partnership in trade and economic, energy and transport spheres, the year by year growing decentralized cooperation, consistent development of partnership in culture, science and education are the unique aspects of our bilateral relations. Russia is our key trade partner, and the main investor in Armenia’s economy. Roughly 1400 joint ventures operate in our country; over 200 bilateral documents are signed.

Armenian-Russian inter-state relations are reinforced by our productive cooperation in the sidelines of international and regional organizations, where I would like to specially point out the CSTO, CIS and of course, the Eurasian Economic Union together with the UN and the OSCE.

Irrespective of the nature of inter-state relations, they cannot be firm unless there is warmth between the peoples. In this context I would like to specially note the deep-rooted nature of friendly ties linking our peoples, ordinary citizens.

Today our joint efforts are also directed to promoting our strategic partnership based on this firm basis and give new content to it.

Dear friends,

I wish to thank all those who have made their contribution during the past 25 years in that noble mission and today continue doing so”.