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On June 10, the RA NA President Alen Simonyan being in Strasbourg on a working visit met with the Council of Europe (CoE) Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić. The sides talked about the procedure of solving some issues voiced at the previous meeting. In particular, the implementation of the RA-CoE Action Plan for Armenia 2019-2022 was in the core of discussion.

The RA NA President has documented that it is successfully carried out, reminding with satisfaction that the CoE Secretariat also gave this assessment at the Steering Committee Meeting of the CoE Action Plan held in Yerevan on March 2. The parties talked about the necessary continuity of the Action Plan. Alen Simonyan singled out the joint agenda priorities regarding the protection of human rights and the fight against corruption, highly appreciating the key support of the Council of Europe with its institutes and monitoring mechanisms. They related to PACE resolution on activities of democratic institutes in Armenia, by which the Assembly highly assessed the progress of Armenia in the democratic development process.

One of the agenda items has been the unsolved humanitarian problems existing until now because of aggression against Artsakh in 2020, including the item of the return of Armenian prisoners of war and other held persons. Alen Simonyan recorded that since the previous meeting with Marija Pejčinović Burić the progress had not been great in the issue of return of prisoners of war and the reports by the international specialized structures on the inhuman conditions of holding prisoners of war and on gross violation of other people’s fundamental rights are disturbing. He thanked the CoE Secretary General for repeatedly referring to these problems, emphasizing her support in the mediatory efforts of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

Marija Pejčinović Burić stressed the significance and importance of the Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process.