YEREVAN, JANUARY 16, ARMENPRESS. No drastic decision will be made in Armenia’s foreign policy frameworks without the people’s positive attitude, Ruben Rubinyan – candidate for Chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on Foreign Affairs, said during today’s Parliament session, reports Armenpress.

“We have a strong mandate, but will be guided by Armenia’s interests and the decisions of the people. I reaffirm that it is necessary to reject the policy of making a drastic foreign policy-related decision without the positive attitude of the people”, he said.

Ruben Rubinyan also touched upon the negotiations over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

“The Prime Minister announced that he can negotiate with the representative of Azerbaijan on behalf of Armenia, and he kept this logic. The impression that Yerevan has refused from the agreements reached in Vienna and St. Petersburg is wrong, they continue to remain in the agenda. The main issue in the negotiations with Azerbaijan is to ensure the continuation of the negotiation format. When during the revolution we were saying that there will be no drastic changes in the foreign policy vectors, we meant the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship format”, he said.

On January 15 the three factions of the new Parliament of Armenia nominated the candidacies for chairmen of the standing committees. 8 committees will be chaired by My Step faction, 2 by Prosperous Armenia and 1 by Bright Armenia factions.

The first session of the Parliament of 7th convocation began on January 14.

Yesterday Ararat Mirzoyan was elected Speaker of Parliament.

MPs Alen Simonyan and Lena Nazaryan from the ruling My Step faction have been elected Vice Speakers of Parliament. The third Vice Speaker Vahe Enfiajyan is a representative from the opposition Prosperous Armenia faction. The Bright Armenia nominated Mane Tandilyan’s candidacy for the position.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan