YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 3, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan on November 3 met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi within the frames of his working visit to India, press service of the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

At the meeting the Indian PM thanked the Armenian President for accepting the invitation to visit India and participating in a conference, and expressed hope the Armenian President’s visit will give new impetus to the Armenian-Indian relations and will increase them to a new level. The PM said Armenia is India’s reliable and key partner in the Eurasian space. According to him, the Armenian traders are among the first ones who came to India and boosted the commercial ties between India and different countries.

The Indian PM congratulated Serzh Sargsyan on the shift to parliamentary system as a result of successfully held constitutional changes in Armenia, as well as on the victory of the Republican Party led by the President in the parliamentary election.

The Armenian President said he accepted the invitation with gratitude and is happy for visiting a perfect country like India. Serzh Sargsyan shared his impressions from the world food conference and exhibition. He said he is impressed by India’s achievements, in particular, its progress in food industry field and added that Armenia is deeply interested in intensifying the ties with India in all spheres, political, economic, humanitarian.

Serzh Sargsyan said the historically formed friendly ties between Armenia and India are the firmed base for developing the inter-state relations and expressed hope that his visit will give new impetus to the Armenian-Indian centuries-old friendship.

The President once again congratulated the Indian PM and good people of India on the 70th anniversary of the country’s independence and said Armenia follows India’s progress and witnesses its constant growing role and reputation in the international arena.

The two officials agreed that the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties between Armenia and India is a good chance to sum up the joint achievements and outline the ways to expand the bilateral cooperation for which all preconditions exist. Despite the high level mutual relations, the two friendly countries have great development potential, but its complete utilization and achievement of progress in it requires significant works.

The Armenian President and Indian PM attached importance to the activity of Armenian-Indian inter-governmental commission in terms of expanding the mutual cooperation.

President Sargsyan said Armenia is ready to create favorable conditions for the activity of Indian companies. He also drew the attention of the Indian side on the Meghri free economic zone to be created on the Armenian border with Iran which also can become an effective platform for cooperation. According to the President, Armenia’s membership to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) will ensure an entry for India to that big market.

The meeting also touched upon a number of fields of bilateral interest, such as jewelry, pharmaceutics, IT, agriculture, food reprocessing industry, tourism, education, science, culture and exchange of experience.

The two officials noted with satisfaction that there is an active cooperation between the two countries also at the multilateral format which is best demonstrated by the mutual assistance in international organizations.

The sides also discussed the situation in South Caucasus and the existing threats, including also the negotiation process for the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

At the end of the meeting the Armenian President left a note in the Honorary Guest book, stating that he is grateful for the warm reception he received in friendly India with which Armenia shared democratic and universal high values.