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On December 13, the delegation comprised of the RA NA deputies Samvel Farmanyan and Suren Manukyan and led by the RA NA Deputy Speaker, the Head of the RA NA Armenia-Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia Friendship Group Eduard Sharmazanov met with the Deputy Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament, the Chair of the Committee on European Affairs Gediminas Kirkilas and the Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs Juozas Bernatonis. The RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Lithuania Tigran Mkrtchyan also attended the meeting.

During the meeting the members of the delegation have highly assessed the fact of condemning the Armenian Genocide by Lithuania and have underlined that by now Lithuania is the only Baltic country that has recognized the Armenian Genocide. The delegation expressed gratitude to the Deputy Speaker for the organization of the exhibition dedicated to the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide in Vilnius Genocide Museum by the support of the Lithuanian Parliament and Gediminas Kirkilas.

In the course of the meeting the sides highlighted the continuous development of the Armenian-Lithuanian parliamentary relations and the cooperation of the delegations in the inter-parliamentary structures.

The RA NA Deputy Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov touched upon the RA-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership signed on November 24, noting that Armenia would continue going on through democratic reforms and development.

“The continuity of the political dialogue with the EU is one of the important directions of the RA political agenda. Armenia is the only EEU country which has signed such an Agreement with the European Union. It gives an opportunity to be a bridge between the EU and EEU,” Eduard Sharmazanov said.

The sides also discussed issues concerning the regional problems of the South Caucasus. Mr Sharmazanov noted: “Both Armenia and Artsakh are for the peaceful settlement of conflicts in the format of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs on the basis of well-known three principles. The support to those three principles in the statement of the Eastern Partnership Summit is very important: non-use of the force or threat, territorial integrity and exercise of equal rights and self-determination of peoples. The bellicose rhetoric permanently sounding from Azerbaijan is concerning and does not stem from the logic of the peaceful settlement of the conflict. In Armenia and Artsakh they build democracy, meanwhile the authoritarianism flourishes in Azerbaijan.”

At the end of the meeting the RA NA Deputy Speaker Eduard Shramazanov invited Gediminas Kirkilas to Armenia in 2018.