YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s foreign minister Edward Nalbandian and Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who is in Armenia on an official visit, discussed the process of implementing agreements on combining actions within the UN, OSCE, EEU, CSTO, CIS and other multilateral international platforms.

At a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart, the Armenian FM said:

“Dear friends,

As you know, I and Mr. Lavrov meet often both in Yerevan and Moscow, as well as in various international platforms.

Today I am once again happy to welcome my colleague and friend, foreign minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov in Armenia.

The official visit of Russia’s minister of foreign affairs has a deep symbolic meaning. This year, we celebrate several important and significant years for us. April marked the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations, and in August we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Aid Treaty between Armenia and Russia.

During the year, the first of the several events dedicated to these anniversary dates took place in February, when together with Mr. Lavrov we opened an exhibition of archive materials in Moscow.

At that time, during my official visit, we agreed upon holding several events dedicated to the abovementioned anniversaries. I am happy that these agreements are successfully being implemented. Today the Armenia-Russia: Friendship Forged by Centuries mass historic-documentary exhibition is being opened in the National Gallery of Armenia.

During today’s negotiations we discussed almost the entire circle of our bilateral relations.

We touched upon in detail the process of realization of the high political agreements reached with results of the three Armenian and Russian presidential bilateral meetings of this year.

The leaders of our countries also met during this year several times on the sidelines of the EEU, CSTO and CIS summits.

The official mutual visits of the leaders of parliament and government of our countries also gave an additional boost to our bilateral cooperation.

We were pleased to note with my colleague the activation of partnership in the economic sector, the growth of bilateral trade turnover, and the deeper involvement of regions of both countries in these processes.

We have rich humanitarian ties. Last year the Days of Russia in Armenia were successfully held. Literally few days ago the leaders of our countries signaled the launch of the Culture Days of Armenia in Russia in the Tretyakov Gallery.

We discussed comprehensively the process of implementation of our agreements on combining actions on the sidelines of UN, OSCE, EEU, CSTO, CIS and other multilateral international platforms.

During the meeting we discussed several issues of the regional and international agenda, and security issues of our region.

The NK conflict settlement process was under special attention, the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries aimed at the implementation of the agreements reached at the 2016-2017 Vienna, St. Petersburg and Geneva summits on the Karabakh issue, aimed at preventing escalation, maintaining the trilateral ceasefire agreements, taking addition measures in the conflict zone for de-escalating the situation and activating the negotiations process.

Our negotiations proceeded in an atmosphere of absolute mutual-understanding, which is natural for allies.

Thank you for attention and I pass the floor to Mr. Lavrov”.