The office of the Armenian Prime Minister issued the following statement today.

Acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan today received Nubar Afeyan, Founder and Executive Director of Flagship Pioneering and Moderna Therapeutics, co-founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.

Greeting Mr. Afeyan, Nikol Pashinyan said: “Dear Mr. Afeyan, I am pleased to see you. Last time we met before COVID, right? I should note that many events have taken place ever since in the world, in our region and in our homeland.

We were excited to see your contribution to the fight against COVID-19, and we are pleased with the achievements you and your company have had in this area. We believe that the epidemiological situation is actually manageable at this point of time: the experience we gained has taught us a lot. We are now trying to vaccinate as many of our citizens as possible.

We are also vaccinating foreigners, as a matter of fact. I hope to hear your opinion and predictions concerning the further behavior of the coronavirus and to what extent vaccines will help tackle the problem; to what extent the situation is manageable at this stage, and what kind of challenges await us ahead.

Of course, we have previously discussed issues related to our national agenda, Armenia’s development strategy. I am confident that today we will discuss these topics as well. Once again, you are welcome and I am happy to see you.”

In turn, Noubar Afeyan noted: “Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. I would like to congratulate you on successful elections, which came to evidence that the nation, the country is in a position to hold fair, exemplary elections. This is a very good sign for our future.

I know that there are many problems for both the country and the nation due to the crises of the last year. I hope we can talk about different approaches to the future, i.e. how to try to be able to make the future brighter and more effective by working together.”

Nikol Pashinyan and Nubar Afeyan discussed issues related to the national agenda, the programs implemented by the Armenian government, the joint projects aimed at Armenia’s development.