On January 20-21, Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Garen Nazarian participated in the 16th session of the Armenia-EU Parliamentary Cooperation Committee held in Strasbourg, co-chaired by Samvel Farmanian, Member of the National Assembly of Armenia and Sajjad Karim, Member of the European Parliament. Members of National Assembly of Armenia and the European Parliament, as well as officials of the European External Action Service attended the session.

According to established tradition, Nazarian presented to the Committee Armenia’s approaches and positions on the agenda issues of the session, such as the current level Armenia - European Union relations and perspectives of development, negotiations on a new framework agreement with the EU, revision of the European Neighbourhood Policy, international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, regional developments and other issues.

During the session, Deputy FM Nazarian answered and commented on numerous questions of the participants concerning the dynamic development of Armenia-EU relations, achievements and further steps. Garen Nazarian attached significant importance to the continuous support of the EU to the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group, mentioning the attempts to shift the issue to other formats or initiate parallel activities could undermine mediatory efforts and further jeopardize the regional stability.

In his remarks, Deputy Foreign Minister commended corresponding resolutions of the European Parliament and member-states on the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, as well as touched upon the needs of people who found shelter in Armenia in the result of the Syrian crisis, calling upon the European partners to support efforts of the Government of Armenia towards their social-economic integration.