On October 25 the President of the National Assembly Mr. Tigran Torosyan received the newly appointed Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden in Armenia Mr. Hans Gunnar Adén. The honorable consul of the Kingdom of Sweden in Armenia Edit Khachatryan also attended the meeting.

Mr. Hans Gunnar informed the President of the National Assembly about the redistribution of political forces as a result of the September elections noting, that four parties have formed a coalition. The President of the Swedish Parliament was also newly elected. The Ambassador noted that his appointment proves the intention of Sweden to develop relations with Armenia. He also stressed the importance of including Armenia in the New Neighbourhood Programme of the European Union and expressed hope that the Action Plan to be signed in November will be implemented most efficiently and will launch new opportunities of development for Armenia, contribute to the strengthening of democracy and economic progress. The Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden also touched upon the forthcoming general elections noting that the elections themselves, as well as the pre-electoral period are going to be at the center of attention of Europe, and it is expected that Armenia will show political will in order to provide elections complying with democratic standards. Mr. Hans Gunnar Adén considers the purpose of his mission the deepening of the Swedish-Armenian cooperation and the development of inter-parliamentary relations.

The President of the National Assembly Mr. Tigran Torosyan noted that there are certain relations between the two countries, but the inter-parliamentary relations are not sufficiently developed and are still being established within the framework of cooperation through international organizations. The two parties also stressed the importance of the development of inter-party relations, which will in its turn contribute to the strengthening of relations between the two countries. Highlighting the importance of the success of the European integration policy adopted by Armenia, the President of the National Assembly informed the Ambassador about the ongoing parliamentary debates on the Electoral Code. He noted that in elaborating the draft amendments to the Electoral Code, the National Assembly closely cooperates with the experts of CE and OSCE, and that there are all the bases for adopting the Electoral Code till the end of the year, and thus creating good legislative grounds for holding the elections. Anyway, only the law is not enough for holding the elections in compliance with democratic standards, and the political forces have to create a favorable atmosphere in the country in order to succeed. Both parties stressed the importance of the observers’ participation in the elections and the objectivity and impartiality of their evaluations.

During the meeting the parties also touched upon the works of complying the legislation with the Basic Law after the constitutional amendments, which comprise the human rights protection, judicial and self-government systems. The President of the National Assembly highlighted the importance of these legislative reforms from the view of political, social and economic development and noted that during the last 5-6 years Armenia has reached good indices of economic development, and that the social and political changes of the coming 3-4 years have to target the strengthening of democracy, and thus to contribute to the further economic development.

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