Republican Party of Armenia

On April 10 the RA NA President Hovik Abrahamyan received the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia Miroslav Lajčák .

Welcoming and thanking the high ranking guest for taking part in the solemn ceremony of taking the Oath of Office of the RA President, the NA President documented with satisfaction that Armenia-Slovakia relations actively develop in bilateral and multilateral dimensions. Hovik Abrahamyan deemed necessary the activation of inter-parliamentary relations and mutual contacts. The NA President noted that Armenia had registered considerable progress in cooperation with the EU. In Mr Abrahamyan’s word, the negotiations over the Association agreement has already been ended, and it was expected to complete the process until the Vilnius Summit. The negotiations over the provisions of the Deep and Free Trade Area are also successfully underway.

Mr Lajčák highlighted the development of cooperation between Armenia and Slovakia, the activation of political dialogue and the boosting of economic cooperation. He underlined the importance of deepening of cooperation between the national parliaments and the enlargement of legal-contractual field. The Deputy Prime Minister expressed conviction that the cooperation of friendship groups and committees would promote the activation of parliamentary relations and noted that in the Parliament of Slovakia Slovakia-Armenia Friendship Group with 19 members functioned. He highly appreciated the successes registered by Armenia in the process of European integration and expressed conviction that in this issue the format of the Eastern Partnership gives wide opportunities for Armenia. Both sides emphasized the deepening of cooperation in international structures.

The sides also touched upon the regional problems and underscored that the Karabakh conflict should be exclusively settled within the OSCE Minsk Group and through peaceful negotiations.