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Since independence, the development of neighbourly and partnership relations with Georgia is one of the important directions of the RA foreign policy. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vahan Kostanyan said this at the extraordinary sitting of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations held on June 19 during the report on the draft on ratifying the Agreement between the Republic of Armenia and Georgia on mutual visa-free travel for citizens of the two countries.

The draft law derives from the 2021-2026 strategy of the RA Government, according to which Armenia wants to deepen relations with neighbouring Georgia in the political, economic, and cultural spheres.

According to the Deputy Minister, there are about 80 international agreements between the two countries. In the foreign policy section of the RA Government’s programme, the necessity to develop special relations with Georgia is mentioned.

“There is a visa-free visit regime for citizens between the Republic of Armenia and Georgia. At present, the RA citizens with an identity document can stay in the Republic of Georgia for up to 1 year, Georgian citizens in the RA for up to 180 days within a year. After the entry into force of the new Agreement, the Agreement signed in 1993 on visa-free movement of citizens of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Georgia in their territories will be invalid,” the Deputy Minister said.

Vahan Kostanyan reminded that on 3 March 2020, the Prime Ministers of Armenia and Georgia signed the Memorandum of Intentions on facilitating the movement of citizens between the Government of Armenia and the Government of Georgia. The parties have expressed their intention to conclude an Agreement by which the citizens of the two countries will acquire the right to visit the territories of each other’s countries with identification cards.

The purpose of the Agreement between Armenia and Georgia is to simplify the mutual visits of citizens in the territories of the two countries as much as possible. On February 2, the Georgian side notified our country of the completion of domestic procedures for the entry into force of the Agreement.

The Chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Sargis Khandanyan made a related report on the draft. He stated that the Parliament of Georgia has already ratified the Agreement. “This is a draft that makes life easier for hundreds of citizens,” Sargis Khandanyan said and urged his colleagues to vote for it.

The deputy of the Civil Contract Faction Gurgen Arsenyan welcomed the initiative and noted. “During 2000 years of our history, the Georgian ethnic group lived and fought together with us. We are now carrying out an important mission and supporting the friendship of peoples.”

The draft was approved by the Committee.

Issues regarding creating friendship groups were also debated at the sitting.

Armenia and Hungary have recently restored their diplomatic relations. At the beginning of the year, Hungary-Armenia Friendship Group was formed in the Hungarian Parliament, and the expectation to create another Friendship Group in the RA NA was conveyed through diplomatic channels. Sargis Khandanyan said this in the context of the debate on creating Armenia-Hungary Friendship Group and mentioned that Hungary has shown some activity on regional issues: with the efforts of that country, prisoners of war were returned from Azerbaijan to Armenia last year.

The issue regarding the establishment of Armenia-North Macedonia Friendship Group became a subject of discussion during the visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia to Armenia. We have reached an agreement to promote inter-parliamentary relations between the two countries. Armenia initiated the creation of the Friendship Group: the Chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations said.

According to Sargis Khandanyan, there are traditionally friendly relations with Latin America, there are friendship groups with the parliaments of a number of countries. It was noted that after the appointment of our Ambassador to Peru and Argentina this year, the Peruvian side made a request to develop parliamentary diplomacy. In this context, it is proposed to create Armenia-Peru Friendship Group.

The Committee endorsed the initiatives to create friendship groups.