On March 3 the RA NA President Mr Hovik Abrahamyan received the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Austria to the Republic of Armenia Mr Marius Kaligaris.
Highly assessing the Armenian-Austrian relations the NA President Mr Hovik Abrahamyan highlighted the development of bilateral relations and the activation of inter-parliamentary cooperation and the cooperation at the level of committees and MPs. Considering the European integration as one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy Mr Abrahamyan noted that the Action Plan of the European Neighbourhood policy opened new perspectives of development in all directions and in this context he highlighted the deepening of relations with Austria as EU member. To his conviction, in this aspect there is big unused potential of cooperation with Austria. Noting the visits of the past years the NA President Mr Hovik Abrahamyan considered useful the visit of the Austrian colleagues to the National Assembly and invited on an official visit to Armenia the newly elected President of the Austrian Parliament Mrs Barbara Prammer.
Reserving a special role to the parliament in the development of the relations of the two countries the Ambassador Mr Marius Kaligaris highlighted the deepening of the Armenian-Austrian relations within the EU New Neighbourhood framework, too.The Ambassador noted that Austria highlighted the deepening of relations with South Cuacasian region, noting with satisfaction the current high level of cooperation. In this context was highlighted the European Union-Eastern Neighbours programme, where the three republics of the South Caucasus, Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus were included.
Mr Kaligaris considered necessary the activation of the inter-parliamentary relations, noting that in the newly elected National Council of Austria the establishment of the committee on Austria-South Caucasus-Middle Asia parliamentary cooperation was envisaged, which would boost the inter-parliamentary relations and make the cooperation full and constructive.
During the meeting the perspectives of the development of bilateral relations, as well as other issues concerning the inner-political situation of Armenia and of bilateral interest were also discussed.