Dear Madam Minister,
Dear colleague,
I welcome your visit to Armenia. This is a good opportunity to continue our discussions, the last of which was in September, in New York.
In general, this year was full of mutual visits and discussions. At the beginning of the year I had the honour to visit you in Berlin and now I have the honour to host you here in Yerevan. We had phone conversations and meetings on different international platforms. Prime Minister Pashinyan and Chancellor Scholz had a meeting, the President of Armenia’s National Assembly visited Germany. We note with satisfaction that such frequent intensive mutual visits take place, and they truly present a good opportunity to develop our bilateral agenda.
Dear colleagues,
Today we thoroughly touched upon a number of issues of bilateral agenda. We have commended the deepening cooperation and prospects in economy, science, education, healthcare and other fields.
It is worth recalling that Germany is Armenia's first trading partner in the European Union, and we expect that the active cooperation of the business circles of the two countries will allow us to set a new, far more ambitious benchmark in terms of trade turnover. We attach great importance to the activities of the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Reconstruction Credit Institute (KfW) in Armenia. We value and appreciate Armenia's inclusion within the framework of Germany’s BMZ 2030 reform strategy, aimed at promoting the stable continuation of current reforms and programs in Armenia.
Taking the opportunity, I briefed my counterpart on the steps directed at implementing Armenia's extensive agenda of reforms aimed at strengthening democratic institutions, fighting corruption, protecting the rights of women and vulnerable groups.
We emphasised the importance of the continuous support of the EU and its member States to these reforms. Of course, in the agenda of the meeting we touched upon other issues of the Armenia-EU partnership, in particular, the activities of the EU monitoring mission in Armenia and the importance of Armenia's sustainable involvement in the economy, including regional programs with the assistance of the EU. I briefed my colleague on the willingness of the Armenian side to contribute to the energy security of Europe, which will be possible if Armenia participates in the Black Sea electric cable regional program.
We also touched upon the issues of cooperation between our two countries and our representatives within the framework of international organisations.
Dear attendees,
Having said all this, I would like to emphasise that for the effective promotion of issues of bilateral agenda and regional programs the atmosphere and environment in our neighbourhood are also important. I know that Minister Baerbock's visit also aims to contribute to their improvement. In this context, I would like to emphasise that we attach great importance to Germany's efforts aimed at establishing stability and peace in the region, both through expressing the principled position by representatives of the legislative and executive bodies of Germany, and involvement in the region, as well as in the format of the meetings held within the European Political Community in Chișinău and recently in Granada.
Madam Minister,
More than 100,000 people of Nagorno-Karabakh, including children, elderly and women, were forcibly displaced from their homeland after being under inhumane blockade by Azerbaijan for months and due to reasonable fear of possible atrocities. In parallel, the occupation of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia has not disappeared, there are humanitarian problems, Armenian prisoners of war and illegally captured civilians are kept in prison in Baku.
I would like to quote from your reaction regarding the developments in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19: "Baku's promise to refrain from military actions was broken." Yes, unfortunately, that was the case. Only genuine and effective efforts to reject this practice can truly contribute to the establishment of stability in the region. I want to emphasise that despite all these difficulties and challenges, the Republic of Armenia has the political will to pursue peace in the region. We consider it possible and our principles are largely expressed in the statements adopted after our quadrilateral meeting in Granada. These principles are very clear: the mutual recognition of the territorial integrity based on the Alma-Ata Declaration; the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border based on the most recent maps of the Soviet Union, as well as the unblocking of communications under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of two states, based on the principles of equality and reciprocity. Especially regarding the last point I want to note that this is what we call the “Crossroads of Peace”. We are confident that our territory can become the mentioned crossroads, and that it will bring economic benefits not only to our immediate region or to our neighbours, but also to the whole world, and that it will become a unique guarantee for peace.
Madam Minister,
Summing up, I would like to thank the Government of Germany for humanitarian assistance aimed at meeting the primary needs of forcibly displaced Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh and for the promise you made today.
And of course, I thank you for today’s substantive discussions.
