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On October 18 the RA NA President Hovik Abrahamyan received the NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai.

Welcoming the guest the NA President highlighted the Armenia-NATO cooperation and Armenia’s participation in the program of Partnership for Peace. Touching upon the RA-NATO relationship, Hovik Abrahamyan has noted that the relations with the NATO is one of the necessary elements of the European integration policy and the political component of European integration continues to remain one of the important directions of Armenia’s foreign political agenda. “Armenia intends to maintain and develops the current rates of cooperation, paying special attention to the implementation of the Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership Action program, as well as its involvement in the international peace-keeping actions with the participation of the NATO,” the NA President said. Hovik Abrahamyan highlighted the support shown to Armenia by the NATO, and particularly, the provided advisory assistance, the aid displayed to the procedure of the RA Armed Forces reforms and their continuity. Talking about the parliamentary dimension of Armenia-NATO relationship, the NA President expressed confidence that the cooperation with the Parliamentary Assembly would be of continuous character for the stability in the region, establishment of security and development of democracy.

The NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai has noted that the NATO is concerned about developing and deepening the cooperation with Armenia. “The door of the NATO is open, and we are open for cooperation and we are ready to support Armenia in the issues of further reforms and European integration,” Mr Appathurai noted. He highly assessed Armenia’s participation in the NATO peace-keeping forces, stressed the high level of our military readiness. The NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative highlighted the role of the National Assembly in the spheres of oversight, providing transparency, the reforms in the field of defense and public awareness, as well as the cooperation within the framework of the NATO PA.

In the course of the meeting the sides discussed other issues of bilateral importance and touched upon the regional issues.