1 / 1

On June 28 the RA National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan received James Appathurai, NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Welcoming the guest the NA Speaker congratulated him on the occasion of assuming the high position and expressed confidence that his first visit to our country would be a new impetus in the advancement of the Armenia-NATO cooperation.

James Appathurai, NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, noted that the NATO-Armenia cooperation was leaned on sound bases, and expressed confidence that it would go ahead.

In the National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan’s word, the policy of the European integration is one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy, and the relations of Armenia with NATO are some of the elements of it. The NA Speaker noted that Armenia was intended to develop the current tempo of the cooperation within the framework of the Partnership for Peace, Individual Partnership Action Plan, as well as within the international peacekeeping actions with the participation of NATO.

The interlocutors also touched upon the regional problems. Hovik Abrahamyan mentioned that Armenia’s wish was to solve all the conflicts through peaceful negotiations. Highly appreciating the role of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the RA NA’s participation in its works, the Parliament’s Speaker noted that, according to existing information, on the initiative of the Azerbaijani side an attempt would be made to include a resolution on the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in the agenda of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly autumn session. He noted that discussions on such kind of resolutions beyond the OSCE Minsk Group framework did not promote the endeavours aimed at the peaceful settlement of the conflict and were considered inexpedient to discuss that document in the NATO PA. The NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia promised to submit the viewpoint of the Armenian side to the NATO PA President.

The reforms in the process of fulfillment in Armenia were also touched upon. The NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia stated that NATO endorsed the amendment made to the Electoral Law, the announced amnesty, the power-opposition dialogue. The NA Speaker ensured that the authorities had a necessary political will to reinforce the reforms directed to the protection of democracy and human rights.