On July 29 the RA NA Speaker Galust Sahakyan received the delegation headed by Jason Kenny, Member of the House of Commons of the Canadian Confederation, Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism.

Welcoming the guests, the NA Speaker highlighted the high level of political dialogue between Armenia and Canada and noted that our country attaches a great importance to the development of relations with friendly Canada both in bilateral and multilateral formats. In his word, the two countries have good traditions of friendship and cooperation. The NA Speaker considered important the development of inter-parliamentary relations, which is an additional stimulus in extending cooperation in the political, cultural, educational and trade-economic spheres. To Galust Sahakyan’s conviction, the role of friendship groups is great in the development of inter-parliamentary ties. In the word of the Head of Parliament, the Canadian Armenians are full citizens of Canada, and make their visible contribution to all the spheres of life, and the Armenian community is the best evidence of Canada’s success in multi-cultural policy. Galust Sahakyan thanked Jason Kenney for the position, support shown on the issues concerning the Armenian people and for the great contribution to the Armenian Genocide recognition.

Touching upon the Nagorno Karabakh problem, the NA Speaker highly assessed the balanced and neutral stance of Canada in the settlement of the conflict and stressed that Armenia pursues only peaceful settlement of the problem. On the occasion of the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide Galust Sahakyan invited his Canadian partners to the international conference entitled “Parliamentarians against Genocide” to be held in Yerevan in April 2015.

Thanking for the reception Jason Kenney deemed important the further development of the Armenian-Canadian relations and the activation of inter-parliamentary ties. He congratulated the Armenian Parliament on the occasion of becoming a full member of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie and expressed conviction that it would boost the bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Mr Kenney highly assessed the role of the Canadian Armenian community in the development of Canada, noting that he maintains good relations with the Armenian organizations, which call him an honourable Armenian. Jason Kenney noted that in autumn a state museum on Human Rights in Canada is going to open, where an exhibition dedicated to the Armenian Genocide will permanently function.

In the course of the meeting the parties also touched upon other issues.