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On the initiative of the NA Staff, the regular outgoing meeting of the Coordination of Parliamentary Support Partners was held in Tsaghkadzor on June 15.

The RA NA Chief of Staff, Secretary General Davit Arakelyan mentioned in his welcoming speech that such contacts are the guarantee of effective joint work. He thanked the international partners and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Canada to Armenia Andrew Turner for their willingness to participate in the meetings. Davit Arakelyan highly appreciated the Ambassador's personal contribution in ensuring the continuity of cooperation between the RA National Assembly and the Canadian Parliamentary Center and expressed hope that the center's Armenian office will be opened in Yerevan this year.

The NA Chief of Staff, Secretary General welcomed the new partners who represent the financial programmes of Armenia’s welfare and public administration funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). “We attach great importance to our steadily developing relations, we want to make them institutional and predictable from the viewpoint of projecting perspectives. Considering the fact that this year most of the partners are starting the new phase of their programmes, we would like to hear the scope of the planned programmes for next year, so that our cooperation will be more effective in terms of the designing goals and the expected results,” Davit Arakelyan mentioned.

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Canada to Armenia Andrew Turner noted that the opening of the Canadian Embassy in Armenia provides wider opportunities for cooperation. He pointed out that his country has a desire to support Armenia in strengthening democracy, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia.

The RA NA Deputy Chief of Staff Heghine Khachikyan underlined that the National Assembly had regular meetings with parliamentary support partners for two years, during which the work and the achieved results are discussed, and the further plans are presented.

The NA Deputy Chief of Staff presented in detail the work carried out jointly with their colleagues in the first half of 2024, noted that quite serious achievements were recorded in terms of the results indicators. She also referred to the plans for the second half of the current year.

The partners of the parliamentary support, the representatives of the UNDP ‘Modern Parliament for a Modern Armenia’ (UNDP MAP 2.0), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and the representatives of the Parliamentary centre (Canada) also spoke about the results. Discussions were held regarding the mandate of each partner and the ways of further cooperation.

The participants of the meeting were briefly presented with the two programmes financed by the US Agency for International Development and cooperating with the RA NA Staff.

They also talked about the next public administration funding programme of Armenia, the main purpose of which is to support the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs, as well as the NA Budget Office at various stages of the state budget processes.

During the meeting, the ways of cooperation for 2025 with the international parliamentary partners were also planned, emphasizing the priorities and the needs of the NA Staff.

The participants highly appreciated the importance of such meetings, stressing that such a platform creates an opportunity to strengthen cooperation with the NA Staff, deepen the existing programmes based on the needs of the NA Staff. The next meeting is planned to be held at the end of this year.