“Good morning,
Honorable Mr. Minister,
Honorable Mr. Gerapetritis,
Your Excellency, my good friend,
Dear guests,
It is a great honor to host you and your delegation in Yerevan today. This is the first official visit of the year for us and in this regard it is also quite symbolic. Your visit is an important demonstration of solidarity at a time when we really feel the need for that solidarity and support.
Dear colleagues,
The friendship between the Armenian and Greek peoples, of course, goes back centuries and millennia։ the Armenian and Hellenic statehoods had close cooperation in different periods of history, but speaking of our modern states, the Republic of Armenia has managed to build strong partnership and friendly relations with Greece over the past 30 years, our agenda is quite rich in all spheres. As for our visit today, of course, today's visit and meeting were also a very good opportunity to touch upon this agenda, give a new impetus to relations, to take our intensive political dialogue a step forward, touching upon many topics, from economics, security, defense to culture. We have also outlined a kind of roadmap of our actions for this year, starting from official visits of high-ranking officials and ending with events in various fields. Of course, the meeting of the intergovernmental commission scheduled for the first half of the year can play a very important role.
I also thanked my Greek counterpart for the support provided by Greece in the process aimed at development of Armenia-EU relations. We are truly committed to developing that relationship based on the values we share in Armenia, Greece and the European Union. Of course, we are talking about democracy, the protection of human rights, and other values. And I also expect further support from Greece in this process.
It should be noted that our cooperation is quite effective and intensive also on multilateral platforms, and this also refers to separate trilateral formats that we have with Greece. We intend to continue our cooperation in these formats as well.
Of course, dear colleagues, I thoroughly briefed my counterpart and the delegation headed by him on the situation in the South Caucasus after the forced displacement of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the peace process. I presented the details of the peace process, problems, the programs and initiatives put forward by the Republic of Armenia, particularly, the "Crossroads of Peace'' project as a solution, for example, in the issue of unblocking transport and economic communications in the region, and, of course, other details. I stressed that despite all the challenges and difficulties, despite the slowdowns and non-constructive approaches that we are witnessing in some cases, Armenia is determined and resolute to build peace in the South Caucasus, to continue peace negotiations, and we believe that if we show a mutually constructive approach, with the political will, we can in the near future achieve a tangible milestone in the issue of establishing peace.
In conclusion, honorable Mr. Minister, I would like to thank you for your visit and express my confidence that this was just one day of our very intense and friendly relations.
Thank you."
