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On March 29, the report on the procedure and results of the RA Government programme implementation for 2020 was debated at the extraordinary sitting of the NA Standing Committee on European Integration.

According to the RA Minister of Foreign Affairs Ara Aivazian, the year 2020 was full of the most serious challenges: coronavirus pandemic and large-scale war. Though there were many problems, nevertheless, the Ministry continued its work on deepening and the friendly relations with the European Union, its member states and other European countries and expanding the partnership. The contacts mainly took place online.

The RA-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement was ratified by the EU all member countries and the EU, as a result of which, from 1 March 2021 it completely entered into force. The Minister reminded that the great part of the Agreement provisions had begun to be applied since 2018.

One of the most important items of the RA-EU relations remains the item of the dialogue over the RA-EU entry visa liberalization, and the Ministry does certain works.

To support the fight against pandemics the European Union and a number of EU member countries provided Armenia medical equipment and financial support about 92mln euros during the financial year. Medical workers arrived in Armenia to help the Armenian colleagues.

The RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued the work with the Eastern Partnership member countries. In 2020, distant discussions and meetings took place on this platform, and in June the Video Summit of the Eastern Partnership was held.

During the war unleashed by Azerbaijan with the support of Turkey against Artsakh on September 27, the Armenian diplomats carried out large scale works in the EU countries, due to which the EU and the legislative and local self-government bodies of a number of EU countries adopted several hundreds of resolutions and documents. The recognition of the right to the Artsakh people’s self-determination and the importance of the decision of the Artsakh final legal status stemming from it were reserved by different bodies of the power of a number of EU countries. “At present, the priorities of Armenia foreign policy are the addressing of the war consequences, including the urgent return of the captives and the persons being kept as hostages, and the specification of Artsakh status, the targeting of the topical humanitarian problems and the protection of Armenian historical-cultural and religious monuments of Artsakh on the territories appeared under the Azerbaijani occupation,” Ara Aivazian specified. He added that the Ministry implements work every day in relation to these most important issues.