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On April 13 the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov received the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Latvia to the Republic of Armenia Gints Apals. The Honourable Consul of Armenia to Latvia Armen Ghasaboghlyan also attended the meeting.

Welcoming the guest the NA Deputy Speaker characterized the relations between Armenia and Latvia as good neighbourly and noted that the two countries had big potential of cooperation in the spheres of politics, economy, education and culture. Mr Sharmazanov noticed that the 21^st century would become a new era for the development of bilateral relations. In the context of activating the cooperation the interlocutors highlighted the establishment of inter-parliamentary relations, as well as the cooperation and the mutual support in the international inter-parliamentary structures of different formats. The sides noted that the EPP could also become a new format for activating the contacts between the political parties, to which the RPA had newly joined. The Latvian Ambassador has deemed special that in their parliament Parliamentary Friendship Group is the most multi-member one. According to the Ambassador, this testifies to the fact that the Latvians’ friendly attitude and big interest to an ancient country, which has often withstood the difficulties with its spiritual and Christian values.

In the NA Deputy Speaker’s words, Armenia and Latvia has many common things, including the struggle for independence. He also considered a factor uniting the two countries the European Integration, and as an EU member state, the experience and support of Latvia deemed useful on the path of European integration for Armenia.

The interlocutors touched upon the parliamentary elections to be held in Armenia. Eduard Sharmazanov ensured the guest that the authorities had political will for holding free and fair elections. In his words, the democratization for Armenia has no alternative, and everybody understand that. The NA Deputy Speaker has presented the pre-electoral processes, noting that equal opportunities are given to all the parties in the campaign, which has started recently.

In the course of the meeting the sides also talked about the NK conflict. Ambassador Gints Apals touched upon the role of the European Union in the process of the settlement of the problem. Eduard Sharmazanov has noticed that the EU assistance can be very important, however the OSCE Minsk Group is the most effective and practical format. He has expressed conviction that the problem is not in the choice of the format, but also the deconstructive behaviour and bellicose announcements of Azerbaijan. “The EU will help us, if we call the spade a spade,” Mr Sharmazanov said and clarified: "During the plenary meeting of Euronest held in Baku Ilham Aliyev’s calling Armenians “fascists”, did not enjoy any European official’s criticism."

At the end of the meeting the Latvian Ambassador also confirmed the necessity of giving new impetus to the relations and finding new ways of contact. In this aspect he highlighted the NA Speaker’s planned visit to the Republic of Latvia.