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On December 17, the RA NA President Galust Sahakyan received the Delegation led by the Minister of National Defence of the Hellenic Republic Panos Kammenos.

Welcoming the guests in the RA National Assembly, Galust Sahakyan has noted that the Armenian and Greek peoples’ friendship is conditioned by the mutual respect coming from the depth of centuries, historical common past, generalities of spiritual and cultural values and national features. In Galust Sahakyan’s word, Armenia highlights the expansion of the bilateral and multilateral relations with Greece and the development of the high level political dialogue.

According to the Head of the Legislative Body, Armenia is concerned about boosting the inter-parliamentary cooperation not only at bilateral, but also at multi-lateral plane, and gives special importance to the cooperation of the friendly delegations in parliamentary platforms of different international and regional organizations, particularly, in the Council of Europe, OSCE, NATO, BSEC, as well as in the Euronest.

The Head of the Parliament expressed concern over the anti-Armenian activities of some members of the Greek Delegation in PACE regarding the NK problem. Galust Sahakyan particularly noted, “The deputies, defending the Azerbaijani side’s anti-Armenian resolutions, promote the continuous steps of Azerbaijan in moving the problem of the NK conflict settlement into other international platforms, which damages the peaceful settlement process of the problem.” Galust Sahakyan has stressed that the Armenian authorities seek to solve the NK problem through peaceful means under the auspice of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. That is the only acceptable format of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement, whereas Azerbaijan continues the aggressive military actions and the provocations in the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh.

Speaking about Armenia-Turkey relations, Galust Sahakyan has stated that the regulation of those relations is important in the context of regional, as well as international context. In Mr Sahakyan’s word, the international community knows that Armenia always had constructive initiatives in that issue.

Thanking for the reception, the Minister of National Defence of the Hellenic Republic Panos Kammenos talked about the Greek and Armenian peoples’ centuries-old friendship. He also highlighted the role of the parliamentary diplomacy in the deepening of cooperation of the two states. The Minister highly assessed the Armenian-Greek military expanding cooperation and noted that there is still non-used potential in the sphere of economic cooperation. Touching upon the NK conflict, the Minister of National Defence of Greece has noted that the position of Greece is distinct in that issue. “The problem should be solved within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, as Armenia wishes,” said he.

Talking about the anti-Armenian approach of the members of the Greek Delegation in PACE, Panos Kammenos assured that he will pass the Armenian side’s concerns to the Greek authorities. He has stated that Turkey invests huge amount of oil dollars for shaping public opinion,

The interlocutors also discussed issues of bilateral interest.