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The working visit of the delegation led by the RA NA President Alen Simonyan to Vienna continues. On September 8, within the framework of the visit the NA President Alen Simonyan met with the President of the National Council of Austria Wolfgang Sobotka.

The RA NA President thanked his counterpart for holding the Conference at high level. Alen Simonyan highlighted Wolfgang Sobotka’s contribution to more deepening and development of inter-parliamentary and inter-state relations between two countries. According to the Head of Parliament, Armenia considers as a priority the inter-parliamentary cooperation and the undertaking of necessary steps on activating contacts.

He underlined that despite the obstacles caused by COVID-19, rather active cooperation had been between the Parliamentary Friendship Groups. In this context, the NA President considered as a turning point the entering of the RA-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement into activities, which would open new perspectives for deepening of the RA-EU cooperation.

The sides touched upon the negotiations of the dialogue on the RA-EU visa liberalisation. The Head of the RA Parliament has affirmed that today Armenia has an agenda for the establishment of long-lasting and stable peace in the region: Armenia with its foreign policy is led by the principle of the interests’ comparison, which allows our country pursuing balanced and flexible foreign policy.

In his turn, Wolfgang Sobotka has highly appreciated the RA democratic achievements, and its vivid evidence is also considered to be the snap parliamentary elections held recently. It has been noted that our country welcomes the efforts of Austria in strengthening peace and stability, forming an atmosphere of mutual trust in the region, boosting the regional cooperation, as well as solving the Artsakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

Wolfgang Sobotka expressed conviction that the NK conflict should be solved in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. The sides discussed in detail the works to be done on immediate release of prisoners of war being kept by Azerbaijan. Alen Simonyan thanked the parliamentarians of Austria for the discussions and statements condemning the aggression in their parliament during the war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh in autumn 2020.