09/09/2024 | Press release | Archived content
Mr. Minister,
Dear friend, dear Xavier,
I am glad to host you and your delegation in the Republic of Armenia, in Yerevan.
I want to mention that the contact between the honourable Minister and me is regular and frequent, and we often have the opportunity to talk about bilateral relations, Armenia-EU relations, and our regional issues. However, I am especially happy to welcome the Minister and his delegation on the occasion of his participation in the "Yerevan Dialogue" forum. I am sure, dear Minister, your contribution to the exchange of views will be precious, and we value it. Of course, traditionally, your visit is also an excellent opportunity to talk about other issues: our bilateral relations, Armenia-EU relations.
Dear attendees,
I would like to point out a few things.
First, in February, if you remember, I visited Luxembourg, and there we opened the diplomatic office of Armenia. This is also a very tangible and concrete proof of our attitude towards Luxembourg. Regarding relations with Luxembourg, we have already formed very good foundations for sectoral cooperation: economy, education, all other areas, which at the moment, of course, we have to admit, are a little behind the level of our political dialogue, but the foundations, as I said, are quite good.
It should be noted that, of course, our cooperation is not limited to the bilateral agenda. We have quite tangible cooperation with positive results and a constant positive attitude on various international platforms, where we often support each other's initiatives and candidacies. During our meeting, we also stressed the importance of our cooperation on multilateral platforms.
Of course, Armenia-EU relations are an important part of our agenda, and today, in fact, we have officially started the Armenia-EU Visa Liberalization Dialogue. We have had a positive message from the European Union on this until now, the EU assistance decision under the European Peace Facility, and the European Union monitoring mission at our border. And we have to state once again that since its deployment, this instrument, this mission, has been quite effective in monitoring the situation and also, in fact, in providing certain stability. These are some of the tools we have with the European Union today. We are now working together to form a new partnership agenda, in fact, we are in the finalization stage of this agenda, we are working in this direction. And I want to express my gratitude in your presence to Minister Bettel for having the clear, unequivocal support of Luxembourg throughout this period.
Of course, dear colleagues, today we also discussed the issues of our region. I informed the Minister that Armenia sent the 10th edition of the draft peace treaty to Azerbaijan. And it is also no secret that this edition largely includes the fully agreed text. These are the fully agreed articles, or agreed parts of several articles, and in fact, we are waiting for Azerbaijan's response. We believe that there is a real opportunity to sign the peace treaty in a short period of time and open a page and age of lasting stability and peace in the South Caucasus.
Of course, I won't go into detail about the topic of unblocking the infrastructure. Our approach is well-known. We are ready to start the process of unblocking the infrastructure a day earlier, a minute earlier, within the framework of the principles presented in the "Crossroads of Peace" concept known to all of us.
We will continue our dialogue tomorrow within the framework of the "Yerevan Dialogue" forum, where I have the honor of exchanging views with the Minister within the framework of the same panel discussion.
Thank you once again for the visit, for our friendship.