During his official visit to Beijing on June 28 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan gave an interview to CGTN.
Question: Your visit to China comes at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Could you share the key topics of your talks and were there any concrete outcomes achieved?
Ararat Mirzoyan. Well, this was my first official visit to Beijing, and I would like to express my gratitude to the Minister Wang Yi for this invitation. This was a very good opportunity for us to sit down to evaluate what is already done, what achievements we have, and then also to mark the path that we are going to pass together. And I must say that there was a quite serious topic of discussion.
We do have tangible achievements already, like if we have a look at the mutual trade and economic relations, we can see that, for instance, last year we had 700 million increase in our mutual trade compared to the previous year. And we have established a flight between Yerevan and Urumqi, so business contacts, trade, people-to-people contacts are increasing and growing, also cultural ties, political dialogue is quite intense and strong, and this is yet not the full potential. Jointly with my counterpart, my colleague Minister Wang Yi and the delegation, we discussed the strategic nature of our relations, we marked the similarities of approaches when it comes to international relations and our cooperation on international fora and also, of course, bilateral agenda.
So this could be the start of a new page, I can say, and hopefully we will see some tangible results and outcomes in coming months.
Question: The recent conflict between Iran and Israel has raised significant concerns across the world. China has been actively promoting peace talks and urging all parties to exercise restraint. How do you view China's role in international diplomacy and conflict resolution?
Ararat Mirzoyan. Well, Armenia is a neighboring country, is a neighbor of Iran, and we were very much concerned and we expressed our position, we condemned the unilateral outbreak of hostilities, the attack on Iran on the very first day. By the way, our approach was very similar to the position that later was expressed by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. So not only because of our friendly relations with Iran, but also having in mind the potential threat, potential nuclear contamination.
Again, I'm going to emphasize that Armenia is a neighboring country. We were very much concerned and now we see that the ceasefire is established. Hopefully, the ceasefire will be consistent and then all the problems will be solved through diplomatic channels, through negotiations.
We are interested in peace in our region. As a country that faced, experienced war in very recent history, in recent several years, we are interested in the establishment of peace not only on our borders, but also in larger regions and in the world. And in this sense, as we understand, our approaches are very close to the Chinese approaches.
We have a peace agenda which is one of the top priorities of the Republic of Armenia. We are negotiating with Azerbaijan.
We agreed upon the draft peace agreement. Now we are ready to sign and then later ratify this peace agreement. We are also trying to normalize our relations with our western neighbor, Türkiye.
So peace is what we strongly believe in. And once again, this is how we perceive the Chinese approach, Chinese policy as well. And we remember, and we are grateful for that, that China also welcomed this agreement over the draft peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan and supports the peace talks and normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
If we have a bigger look at the international relations, violation of international law, violation of territorial integrity, absence of rules in international relations are not beneficial, neither for Armenia, nor again, as we understand, for China, nor for humanity in general. So if the general aim is and overall the final goal is establishment or re-establishment or strengthening of international law, strengthening of multilateralism, then we completely share this approach.
Question: Actually, I know that Armenia has introduced the “Crossroads of Peace” project, which aligns in many ways with China's Belt and Road Initiative in promoting connectivity and regional cooperation. So how do you see the synergy between these two initiatives?
Ararat Mirzoyan: Obviously, the whole world is now trying to explore new logistical rules to strengthen connectivity between countries, and One Belt Initiative, as well as Armenia's Crossroads of Peace Initiative, are part of this general search for new or better connectivity. As you noted, the Crossroads of Peace Initiative of the Republic of Armenia completely coincides with the vision of One Belt, One Road. Basically, the idea is to ensure better connectivity between Europe and East Asia, between Paris and Beijing, and we clearly see the goods and people traveling freely and smoothly from Paris to Beijing, from France through South Caucasus, through Armenia and then through Central Asia, through Kazakhstan, for instance, to China.
And if implemented and if operated smoothly, this better connectivity, be it “Crossroads of Peace”, be it “One Belt, One Road”, will be beneficial for all the countries and all the nations and will help the governments to ensure or to reach their main goal, the prosperity and happiness of their citizens. This autumn, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit will be held in China's Tianjin. And as a dialogue partner of the SCO, Armenia has seen its total trade with China grow steadily year after year.
Question: So in your view, how might the SCO's focus on green development and the digital economy bring new opportunities to two countries?
Ararat Mirzoyan: Well, Armenia is a dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the basic principles, fundamental principles of the organization are very important for Armenia. Let's remember some of them - it's territorial integrity, it's inviolability of the borders, it's non-use of force.
This is completely what Armenia builds its foreign policy these days. So the principles are very important for us. But also, in addition, we see that several other agendas are being promoted within and in frames of the organization, like you mentioned a couple of them, like AI, digital economy, green transition, climate issues.
So these topics are important for us too. Let's remember only one fact, I think it is quite indicative. One of the main parts, I would say, the major part of the trade between Armenia and China is green technologies.
So again, in addition, when we speak a little bit larger about climate issues, biodiversity, climate issues are also very important for Armenia. Next year, we're going to host the COP17 on biodiversity and we're very much looking forward to this important for us event and cooperation with China in this context as well. So I'm saying this to show that our interest in cooperation or in the activities of the Republic of Armenia in the frames of this organization are important for us.
Moreover, we decided to enlarge, to increase our participation in this organization. And by the way, this was one of the topics discussed between Armenian and Chinese delegations during our discussions, our negotiations. So we expressed a clear position about our aspiration to increase our role in this organization. And hopefully this aspiration will be welcomed by the member states.
Question: This year marks the 33rd anniversary of the diplomatic relations between China and Armenia. Beyond economic collaboration, cultural exchanges have also flourished. The growing popularity of Mandarin in Armenia and the Khachaturian International Violin competition held in China are both highlights of people-to-people ties. Looking ahead, what are your expectations for the future?
Ararat Mirzoyan: Absolutely. Cultural exchanges are very important for increasing and growing the people-to-people ties.
And I should note with satisfaction that there is growing interest in both societies, in Armenia, towards Mandarin, towards Chinese culture. And also we see the growing interest here in China towards Armenian culture. If we look at the history, if we dig deeper in history, we would see that there has always been a good interaction between Chinese and Armenian civilizations.
So there have always been strong cultural ties. But we are all glad to see that these days this interest in Armenia and China is only growing. And again, I would like to bring one example.
There is a school in Armenia which teaches Mandarin. And there is a long queue, the parents do want and express a wish to send their kids to study at this school. So this is quite an indicative example, I see. And also the popularity of Khachaturian and Armenian music in China. These are only examples to show the general trend.
