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On December 14, the delegation led by the RA NA Vice President Eduard Sharmazanov and comprised of the RA NA deputies Samvel Farmanyan and Suren Manukyan, met with the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Andrejs Pildegovičs. The RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Lithuania Tigran Mkrtchyan also attended the meeting.

In the course of the meeting issues regarding the development of the Armenian-Latvian parliamentary relations and the continuous cooperation of Armenia with the European Union were discussed.

The RA NA Vice President has touched upon the RA-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement signed in Brussels on November 24, underlining that it opens a new page in the history of the RA-EU relations. In his word, Armenia has always stated that the close cooperation with the EU is one of the prior directions of the country.

During the meeting the sides also discussed issues relating to the regional security. Mr Sharmazanov considered inadmissible the closing of the border with Armenia by Turkey, underlining that that state had made a step backward after the Zurich protocols and put preconditions in the settlement process of the relations which is also inadmissible.

With regards to the peaceful settlement of the NK problem, the RA NA Vice President has noted that in this issue the RA viewpoint is consonance with the EU official position. “As the Minsk Group, the European Union, so the Republic of Armenia is for the settlement of the problem exclusively through peaceful negotiations, on the basis of the three well-known principles, meanwhile Azerbaijan, distorting the reality, makes efforts to distinguish the territorial integrity. It is dubious and non-understandable that some EU member countries, including Latvia has signed a declaration on strategic cooperation, where the territorial integrity is distinguished from the three well-known principles. This contradicts both the Minsk Group and the EU official position which once again confirmed the EU on November 24,” Mr Sharmazanov said.

Other issues of bilateral interest were also discussed.