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On April 23 the NA Acting President Eduard Sharmazanov received the delegation led by Juozas Olekas, Minister of National Defence of the Republic of Lithuania. The Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs Koryun Nahapetyan and the First Deputy of the RA Minister of Defense Davit Tonoyan attended the meeting.

Eduard Sharmazanov recorded with satisfaction that during the recent years a significant progress had been registered in Armenia-Lithuania relations and expressed hope that everything would be done to more develop the bilateral relations. To his assessment, the two states and peoples are more connected by value system commonalities: it is not accidental that Lithuania has been the first country that recognized the independence of Armenia, and the only state among the Baltic countries that has recognized the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Eduard Sharmazanov also conditioned the development of the bilateral relations by Lithuania’s membership to the EU and its efforts made for Armenia’s Euro integration. He has assured that Armenia’s decision of entering into the Customs Union is conditioned by the geo-political realities and national interests, which can never be an obstacle for the EU-Armenia dialogue.

Eduard Sharmazanov highlighted the development of the Armenian-Lithuanian inter-parliamentary relations, the active cooperation of the parliamentary friendship groups. He thanked Lithuania’s leadership for the balanced approach shown in the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh problem and the support of the Minsk Group activities.

Eduard Sharmazanov also touched upon the events of the 99^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkey, saying: “The crime committed towards our people should sober the whole humanity. Everybody should recognize it for not letting such atrocities. Non-condemnation of the genocide is almost equal to encouraging it.”

Juozas Olekas, Minister of National Defence of the Republic of Lithuania, has talked about the possibilities, perspectives of the development of the Armenian-Lithuanian relations, particularly, the military cooperation and has assured that Lithuania understands and backs the aspiration of Armenia’s peace and stability and is always ready to support the democratization and European integration of Armenia.

During the meeting other issues of mutual interest were also discussed.