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At May 4 sitting moderated by Ruben Rubinyan, the RA NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations debated the foreign policy section included in the report in the Procedure of the RA Government Programme Implementation approved by the Decision N 54-A of 8 February 2019 and Its Results.

The key speaker, the RA Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan presented the activities of the Ministry and the most important principle of Armenia’s foreign policy.

The Minister informed that the geography of the diplomatic representations accredited in Armenia and the RA diplomatic representations abroad was expanded in 2019 and would continue in 2020.

In 2019. the Consulate General of Uruguay in Armenia, in February 2020 the Embassy of Slovakia opened and three European countries, as Serbia, the Netherlands and Sweden made a decision to open Embassies in our country during 2020 and concrete steps had been taken during 2020. The First Resident Ambassador to Armenia had already been appointed by the Netherlands. The RA Embassies were opened in Qatar, Ethiopia and Israel. Diplomatic relations were established with Northern Macedonia.

According to Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, Armenia strengthened the diverse and multi-layered cooperation based on the dialogue at bilateral high level with the RF, continuous steps have been taken in further deepening and upgrading the cooperation being implemented in the framework of the CSTO.

During 2019, Armenia successfully chaired in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) bodies. In that period, great attention had been paid to deepen the cooperation with the third countries. The speaker noted that the Armenia’s partnership relations have been developed with the European Union, the EU member countries, all countries of the European continent in the political and economic spheres. According to the Minister, one of Armenia’s foreign political priorities has been and remains the strengthening and deepening of the friendly and partnership relations with the U.S. During the past period, the platform of the strategic dialogue established with the U.S contains new opportunities to expand and deepen the agenda of cooperation.

“The strengthening and development of cooperation with our two immediate neighbours Georgia and Iran, including the framework of transport and energy connection is of special importance for us. We are also to deepen the friendly relations with China through development and expansion of multi-spherical and mutually beneficial wide cooperation, and last year important steps were taken in this direction, particularly non-entry regime has been established between our countries,” the Head of the Foreign Ministry underscored.

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan also referred to the development of cooperation with a number of countries, the steps undertaken in further expansion of the effective cooperation established between Armenia and the Council of Europe, the advancement of the genocide prevention agenda, the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide.

According to the Minister, the peaceful settlement of Artsakh issue is one of the most important priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy. The close cooperation with the international mediators, the Minsk Group Co-Chairs in the peaceful settlement of the problem. During the year, two agreements had become possible to reach for preparing the peoples for peace and create favourable environment for peace.

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan presented the main directions of the activities of Foreign Ministry in the conditions of the pandemic and noted that as a result of agreements reached with the colleagues necessary health care items, materials and equipment for the fight against COVID-19 had been imported to Armenia.

The Foreign Minister answered the MPs’ numerous questions.