YEREVAN, JANUARY 30, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on January 30 had a meeting with the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

In his remarks the President said today’s meeting is important in terms of discussing not only the achievements of the foreign ministry, but also the existing problems and the future steps. The President discussed Armenia’s foreign policy vision with two main emphasis: what are the medium-term issues of Armenia’s foreign policy and what is needed to be done to make the activity of the foreign ministry more effective and improve it.

The President preferred not to touch upon Armenia’s foreign policy directions during this meeting, but to focus on issues aimed at more effectively conducting and organizing that policy.

“I consider the effective implementation of the foreign policy as vital as the domestic reforms. Moreover, the successful implementation of our domestic reforms is closely linked with the foreign policy. It’s important both in terms of the international assistance to reforms, properly presenting them abroad, studying the positive experience of some countries and making and applying it locally. The foreign policy plays a key role in increasing our country’s security level, protecting our interests in international relations, long-term development, and of course, protecting the interests and rights of our citizens abroad.

Increasing the efficiency of our diplomacy is just the imperative of the day. It is associated with the traditional challenges and threats faced by us, as well as with the drastic changes taking place in our region and the world. Moreover, the changes not only bring challenges, but also in some cases create new opportunities. And the diplomacy’s task is to predict them on time and understand their nature, to be able to maximally effectively serve them to the interests of our country. It’s obvious that in the contemporary world the number of conflicts and various crisis, the disagreements between different organizations of security field, the religious and ethnic intolerance trends are increasing”, the President noted.

President Sargsyan attached a great importance to the medium-term and long-term planning in the foreign policy field, as well as the development of the respective policy. “I think time has come to revise and upgrade the National Security Strategy of Armenia. It’s not a coincidence that I put forward this idea and talk about it in the foreign ministry.

The main challenges of Armenia’s national security mainly are linked, or to be more precise, are directly inter-related with our foreign environment. I expect from the foreign ministry to play a significant role in the whole process of revising this document.  

I think the foreign ministry accumulated the necessary knowledge, experience and most importantly a set of tools to present really comprehensive and principled proposals. But you are diplomats and understand very clearly that in order to have such fundamental and long-term document certain conditions are necessary and the clarification during the creation of such document is a necessity”, Serzh Sargsyan said.

During the meeting the President presented his views on the foreign policy issues and some shortcomings of the foreign ministry on solving them, clearly outlining the works where it could be possible to reach greater results thanks to good and consistent activities.

President Sargsyan also touched upon the negotiation process over the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, as one of the most important issues in Armenia’s foreign policy agenda.

“Dear colleagues,

We have never tried to put our share of responsibility of solving international and regional issues on someone else. The peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict will remain in the frontline of our foreign policy agenda. Of course, we will steadily continue to support the efforts of peacefully settling the conflict at the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs format. Thanks to the work of the past ten years done in the settlement process, our positions have significantly strengthened. And here I want to thank all participants of the process led by the minister. We, of course, managed to enshrine the right to self-determination as a fundamental principle for the conflict settlement.

At the same time, as much as the Nagorno Karabakh issue is in the forefront of our foreign agenda, Armenia’s foreign policy, of course, should not be limited only to this issue. It’s natural that our foreign policy should focus on the national interests of Armenia, and Armenia’s participation in the issues of international agenda will have a positive effect in terms of promoting our views”, the President said.

Serzh Sargsyan also drew the attention of the meeting participants on the upcoming events to be held in Yerevan in 2018 – the Francophonie Summit, events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Armenia and the May heroic battles, Yerevan’s 2800th anniversary celebrations and the third Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide, stating that it’s necessary to worthily celebrate these events.

At the end of the meeting the President said maybe his today’s remarks were strict, but they aim at improving the works, making them more effective.

“I want you to be sure that your work is really appreciated. The fact that we all consider you as soldiers and officers of our country’s security from political perspective, in my opinion, is the greatest appreciation”, the President said, adding that there are great expectations from the work of the diplomats.

During the meeting the President answered the questions of the meeting participants.