Introductory remarks by Foreign Minister of Armenia at the annual press conference

Good afternoon, dear colleagues,

Firstly, I sincerely congratulate allof you on the New Year and Christmas with best wishes.

Throughout the year, of course, there has been regular communication about the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In one way or another, through various channels, the public is informed about our activities. Nevertheless, it is a tradition of summing up the past year during the last days of the passing year or in the early days of the new one. I will begin with brief introductory remarks, and then I will gladly address your questions.

Certainly, I will start with the process of normalization of relations with Azerbaijan. I assume, and understandably, this is of primary interest to all of you. I am also confident that I won't cover everything, and we will address some of the topics through the questions.

Thus, over the past year, we made significant achievements in the process of normalization of relations with Azerbaijan. I am referring, of course, to the delimitation process. We managed to sign, in fact, the first-ever international legal document between the two countries - the Regulation on joint activity of the border delimitation commissions, and later, a specific section of the interstate border was delimited on the ground. By the way, I would like to take this opportunity to encourage both you and our compatriots, who are following this conference online, to visit the delimited section whenever possible, to observe the border infrastructure and the life that is already underway in the demarcated area. There is an agreement to continue this work: presumably, this month, in January, the next meeting will take place between the two deputy prime ministers and the commissions. There is also a clear understanding of how and from where to continue the delimitation.

Regarding the peace treaty: of course, throughout the year, there have been several exchanges of proposals on the document, including partial exchanges of specific formulations. Discussions have occurred in both official and unofficial formats at the level of ministers and heads of state. However, we do not yet have a signed document. About a month and a half ago, we sent our latest proposal and are now awaiting the Azerbaijani side's response. It is no secret, you may recall, in August, we proposed signing the agreed-upon 13 articles and the preamble. The Azerbaijani side did not agree to this, negotiations continued, and currently, out of 17 articles under discussion, 15 have been agreed upon. We will see what the Azerbaijani side's response will be regarding our proposals on those two articles. We are confident that we have proposed mutually acceptable solutions to the Azerbaijani side, solutions that will not only allow us to sign the document and move forward but also provide the most fundamental and full resolution to existing issues.

The third component of the Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization process is, of course, the unblocking of regional transport infrastructure. As you know, we have come forward with the "Crossroads of Peace" initiative, which, of course, is not limited to the unblocking of Armenia-Azerbaijan transport routes but forms a much broader international agenda. I am pleased to note that the "Crossroads of Peace" initiative has been welcomed by several international actors - various countries and organizations, and of course, one of its components is the unblocking of Armenia-Azerbaijan transport routes. In this regard, we have once again made a proposal to the Azerbaijani side. The proposal was presented by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Kazan, and then by Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan. The Armenian side has handed over to Azerbaijan a more comprehensive, written version of the proposal. I can say that the initial reaction of the Azerbaijani side - at least that was my understanding, was rather positive. Unfortunately, we have not yet received an official response on this matter.

I should emphasize that the proposal we have made addresses all the existing issues. It pertains, of course, to the unblocking of the railway passing through the south of Armenia in the first phase - Yeraskh-Nakhichevan-Meghri, and then going again to Azerbaijan, as well as the transit of cargo. In this context, we have proposed certain simplifications for customs and border crossing procedures, as well as additional mechanisms to ensure the security of the same goods. I repeat, the initial reaction from the Azerbaijani side left a positive impression, but we shall see how things unfold.

Touching upon the "Crossroads of Peace", in this context, I should also mention our contacts with Turkey. We have publicly stated that Armenia and Turkey have agreed to carry out an assessment of the condition of the railway infrastructure through the involvement of relevant specialists, and, of course, we are convinced that the reactivation of the Kars-Gyumri railway, in particular, will offer great economic opportunities not only for Armenia and Turkey but also for the much broader region in general. Just as in the case of Azerbaijan, the unblocking of transport routes in this case will also serve as a crucial factor for peace and stability in the region.

While speaking about our neighbors, let me continue by addressing our relations with Georgia and Iran. Last year, we signed a document with Georgia, raising our relations to the level of strategic partnership. It is no secret that, in essence, we have always had a strategic partnership with Georgia in all areas.

With Iran, besides the continuous development of bilateral relations, I would like to once again highlight the context of relations in the area of transport. Here, the start of construction of the 32-kilometer Agarak-Kajaran road section was important. Of course, it is essential, and we have highlighted this at every opportunity that Iran's position on territorial integrity of Armenia and the inviolability of its borders is important for us - a position that is regularly voiced by high-ranking Iranian officials, as well as the position of Iran on the issue of unblocking the same transport infrastructure. I would also like to note that, starting from the beginning of this year, or, technically, since the last day of the previous year, the border checkpoint between Armenia and Iran is now fully managed by the Border Guard Troops of Armenia. This is another indicator of the high mutual trust that exists between the two countries.

Regarding other countries: we have an ongoing and very intensive dialogue with the United States and the European Union and are developing our relations. It is worth mentioning, of course, the trilateral meeting held on April 5, which resulted in the adoption of a very important document. Additionally, this year we had another round of our strategic dialogue with the United States, and an agreement was reached to elevate our relations to the level of strategic partnership.

We continue to discuss with the European Union and I hope we will sign the new partnership agenda in the coming months. This is another comprehensive document. You are aware that an agreement was reached with the European Union, and the dialogue on visa liberalization has finally commenced. This was a significant step forward, as it had been a topic of ongoing discussion without tangible progress, and then after all, the launch of the dialogue took place. The Republic of Armenia received support from the European Union under the European Peace Facility, which was also an unprecedented phenomenon, and currently, we continue our discussions with the European Union in other areas and on specific topics.

I also consider it important to emphasize that the European Union Mission remains deployed along the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is an important factor, especially in the times and rhetoric in the conditions of which we live and which we are witnessing. We firmly believe that as long as the Republic of Armenia does not have clearly delimited borders, or in areas where it has not delimited its borders with Azerbaijan, and as long as there are fabricated accusations on shooting or violating the peace by Armenia's Armed Forces, as we literally witnessed just days ago, we will continue to require the presence of the European Union Mission and consider their presence essential.

Let me touch upon our relations with some countries of the European Union. You must be aware of how deep and multifaceted our relations are with France, we have an intensive dialogue with Germany, Poland, and other countries.

I would like to highlight the The Nordic-Baltic format, which includes 8 countries from Northern Europe. This is very interesting for us both because these countries have long-established democracies with strong democratic institutions and protected human rights, and because they are economically important for us. As a result, we have intensified both mutual visits and discussions with those countries across various sectors. I would also like to mention the recent meeting I had with the Foreign Ministers of the Nordic-Baltic countries in Malta last December, within the framework of the OSCE Annual Ministerial Meeting. By the way, in the near future, we are expecting visits from the speakers of the parliaments of these countries to Armenia, and other exciting developments are expected in this regard.

If we move to the East, we have day-to-day developing cooperation with China and India, which includes both traditional sectors and new ones, ranging from economic to security topics.

In the Middle East, following the establishment of diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, the first visit by the Minister of Foreign Affairs took place, and quite interesting developments are anticipated. We need to work in this direction. We also have an interesting and promising dialogue with the United Arab Emirates.

Following the recent developments in Syria, as you may have followed in the media, we had a very brief absence from the country, initially, our Consulate General in Aleppo, and later the staff of our Embassy in Damascus, had to temporarily leave Damascus and, respectively, Aleppo. Afterwards, they resumed their work in the host country. We have established relations with the new administration and the new authorities, and we will continue our efforts. From the Middle East, I would like to mention the recognition of the State of Palestine by the Republic of Armenia. You will also recall that this recognition was followed by the signing of the corresponding communiqué by the Prime Minister of the State of Palestine and myself in New York.

In Central Asia, we also have very interesting and promising partners. I would like to highlight Kazakhstan. Over the past year, as you may recall, high-level visits took place. It should be touched upon that the discussions during those visits were also very rich in content. Kazakhstan is one of the countries that welcomed the "Crossroads of Peace" initiative. Of course, we are also grateful to Kazakhstan for its willingness to contribute to the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Kazakhstan has already hosted such a meeting and has expressed its readiness to continue this practice.

Africa is a new and interesting direction for us. Traditionally, as you may recall, we have had a presence in the northern part, such as in Egypt. Now, we are discovering the rest of Africa. We have an embassy and staff in Ethiopia, from there we cover, so to speak, a number of African countries, we have other plans and programs as well.

In Latin America, we opened a resident embassy in Uruguay. Additionally, we have established offices in Serbia and Luxembourg. It is worth noting that the Luxembourg office began operations at the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024. We also have plans for 2025. In the near future, resident embassies will be opened in Hungary and Cyprus.

Among multilateral platforms, it is worth highlighting Armenia's membership in the International Criminal Court, additionally, as you may recall, Armenia won the bid to host the COP17 Biodiversity conference in Yerevan, which will take place in 2026. Another significant forum within the framework of multilateral cooperation was the "Yerevan Dialogue," held in Armenia for the first time. Generally speaking, some countries have a tradition of hosting international diplomatic forums, and we made our attempt in this direction. The first such event was held last year, and now we plan to host the next "Yerevan Dialogue" meeting in 2025.

Last year, the 5th Global Forum "Against the Crime of Genocide", the Ancient Civilizations Forum, and the conference "Protection and Restoration of Cultural Heritage with New and Emerging Technologies" were held.

That is all, perhaps, as an introduction. I will be happy to answer your questions, if there are any. Thank you.

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