Republican Party of Armenia

On July 15 the RA NA President Hovik Abrahamyan received the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Leonid Kozhara.

Welcoming the guest, the NA President deemed important the visit of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office to the South Caucasus countries and noted that it was a good opportunity to get acquainted with the regional problems on the spot, as well as for discussing issues of common interest. He expressed conviction that during the period of presidency of Ukraine to the OSCE necessary steps of the peaceful co-existence and the peaceful settlement of conflicts would be untertaken. In the NA President’s word, Armenia highly assesses the cooperation with the OSCE structures and the support of the organization in the democratic reforms going on in our country. Hovik Abrahamyan has noted that the RA National Assembly highlights the effective cooperation with the OSCE Yerevan Office.

Touching upon the regional problems, the NA President highly assessed the efforts aimed at the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. “I would like especially to underline that in contrast with Azerbaijan, which constantly tries to move the issue of the conflict settlement to other international organizations and wishes to change the OSCE Minsk Group format, Armenia has steadily defended and continues to defend the current negotiation format as an only and acting format of the conflict settlement,” the NA President said. In his word, Armenia keeps the principles of regional cooperation in all possible spheres, deepens the means of strengthening of confidence and has permanently been for full and mutually beneficial regional economic cooperation, observing it as an important precondition of creating an atmosphere of mutual confidence.

Hovik Abrahamyan highly assessed the high level of the Armenian-Ukrainian inner-state relations and highlighted the deepening of inter-parliamentary relations, the cooperation in international structures, as well as the development of cooperation in the spheres of economy, science, education and other spheres.

Thanking for reception the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Leonid Kozhara highly valued the Armenia-OSCE cooperation and the active involvement of our country in the solution of the problems facing the organization. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine emphasized the continuous development and reinforcement of political, economic relations and inter-parliamentary relations.

Highlighting the safety and the peace of the region Leonid Kozhara in this context has noted that the NK problem should be exclusively settled through peaceful negotiations and has stressed that the OSCE supports the activity of the Minsk Group. In the settlement of the problem he also deemed necessary the activation of the contacts between the societies, towards which Ukraine, as presiding country, inclines to undertake a number of steps.

Touching upon the problem of controlling the ordinary armaments in Europe the sides highlighted the recommencing of negotiations around the treaty.

In the course of the meeting other issues of bilateral interest were also discussed.