1 / 9

On April 25-27, at the invitation of Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Congress of Deputies of Spain, the delegation led by the RA NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Sargis Khandanyan was on a working visit in Madrid, in the Kingdom of Spain. The deputies Maria Karapetyan, Lena Nazaryan and Lilit Galstyan were included in the delegation.

During the visit the parliamentarians had meetings with the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Congress of Deputies of Spain led by the Chairman Pau Marí Klose, as well as the Head of Delegation of Parliament of Spain to OSCE PA, the Special Representative of OSCE PA on South Caucasus Pere Joan Pons and the members of the delegation. The RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Spain Sos Avetisyan also took part in the meetings.

During the meetings the positive dynamics of the Armenian-Spanish relations was recorded with satisfaction.

The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Congress of Deputies Pau Marí Klose highlighted the visit of the RA NA delegation to Spain and the activation of the inter-parliamentary contacts. He noted that a few days ago he had an honour to attend the opening ceremony of the Chair of Armenian Studies in Complutense University of Madrid.

Sargis Khandanyan highly appreciated the solidarity and support shown to Armenia by the Congress of Deputies of Spain. He also highlighted the unanimous adoption of the statements expressing concern over the blocking the Lachin Corridor and humanitarian crisis created because of it. The deployment of the EU Monitoring Civil Mission in Armenia was emphasized. The Head of the NA delegation expressed hope that the upcoming presidency of Spain in the Council of the European Union will promote the deepening of the Armenian-EU Partnership. Issues on regional security and stability were considered.

The members of the delegation presented in detail the situation created because of the blocking the Lachin Corridor, considering unacceptable the establishment of the checkpoint by Azerbaijan. In this context the necessity of sending an international fact-finding mission to the Lachin Corridor was underscored.

During the meeting with the delegation of Spain to OSCE PA issues regarding the cooperation of the delegations of the two countries within the framework of the Assembly and the works of the upcoming Annual Session to be held in Vancouver were discussed.