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On April 12 RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan received the delegation led by the member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Li Changchun. The haeds of RA NA factions and standing committees took part in the meeting.

Welcoming the guests Hovik Abrahamyan expressed conviction that Mr Chnagchun’s visit would give new impetus to the friendly relations of the two countries. In his word, Armenia pays great importance to the cooperation with China and further development of relations in different spheres. By the NA Speaker’s assessment, in the public, political, economic and cultural spheres the expansion and depth of mutual cooperation will promote the strengthening of mutual understanding between Armenia and China, activation of contacts between two societies. In March 2011 Coordinating Council relating to the issues of studying Armenian-Chinese relations and cooperation between the two countries was created in order to reach more beneficial results. The NA Speaker noted that a preliminary agreement was reached on sister-cities relations between Yervan and Beijing, as well as on establishment of cooperation between Lori Marz and Shanxi State of China.

Hovik Abrahamyan documented with satisfaction that the inter-parliamentary and inter-party relations were also dynamically developing between the two countries. He considered important the deepening of cooperation between the two parliaments and the activation of the activity of the friendly groups.

The NA Speaker thanked the Chinese side for the balanced position on Nagorno Karabakh.

Expressing his gratitude for reception the member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Li Changchun considered necessary the deepening of development of cooperation between the two countries and noted that despite the distance the friendship of Armenia and China had centuries long history. In the development of inter-state relations Mr Chanchung distinguished the role of inter-parliamentary cooperation and in this context highly assessed the official visit of RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan in 2008 to China and the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two countries, which have new opportunities for further development of inter-parliamentary relations.

The parties highlighted the deepening of cooperation in trade-economic, scientific-educational, cultural and other spheres.

At the end of the meeting the NA Speaker reaffirmed his invitation to the Chairman of the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress of China Wu Bangguo to visit Armenia.

At the meeting the parties discussed other issues of bilateral interest, too.