Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Mark Rutte met today in the Hague.

Pashinyan’s office issued the following statement on the meeting.

Mr. Rutte attached importance to the official visit of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia to the Netherlands and the development of cooperation between the two countries in all spheres.

During the meeting, the interlocutors also emphasized the development and expansion of economic relations between the two countries, the implementation of relevant measures to expand business ties. They expressed confidence that there is a great potential for economic cooperation between Armenia and the Netherlands, the realization of which will contribute to the increase of trade turnover.

The parties touched upon the Armenia-EU relations, the situation around Nagorno Karabakh, the processes taking place in the international arena.

Mark Rutte said the following:

“Thank you very much. It is a great pleasure for me to welcome and receive Nikol Pashinyan and some members of his government here.

The Netherlands and Armenia are geographically several thousand kilometers apart, but in other respects the distance between our countries is small. We are the appreciator of cultural values. An exhibition opened at the Drents Museum yesterday, and I hope to visit it soon. We also have excellent diplomatic relations that have existed for 30 years. The opening of the Embassy of the Netherlands took place in Yerevan, which confirms our excellent bilateral relations.

The visit of Prime Minister Pashinyan is taking place at a very right time, because the Armenian government has very big plans after last year's elections. We have many topics to talk about, there are very big plans. Armenia has made great investments. It is following the path of democracy, although sometimes there are difficult situations and conditions. Following the velvet revolution under the leadership of Prime Minister Pashinyan, great changes have taken place, corruption and many other wrongdoings have been fought. I am greatly convinced that the reforms will be very effective, all Armenians will benefit from it. I highly appreciate Mr. Pashinyan, I highly appreciate the activities of his government, I promised him that we will support in every way.

Although there are many positive achievements, unfortunately, the catastrophic war in Ukraine saddens everyone. Of course, we talked about that today. Our position is very clear: this terrible war must end, all parties must sit at the table and start negotiations. Only this can lead to lasting peace. Unfortunately, Armenia well understands what war means, and that is why it is so important that Armenia and Azerbaijan have recently begun negotiations to reach an agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh in the near future. We emphasize its importance; we support the Minsk Group Co-Chairs. It is a very difficult dialogue after so much grief. Mr. Pashinyan made very clear about that in the parliament. I expressed my respect for that, the efforts of the Armenian government in that regard, we wholeheartedly welcome and we will continue to welcome. Of course, we have not finished our conversations yet, we will sit at the table soon, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Pashinyan and the ministers for the visit.

During this visit, we reaffirmed what unites our nations. It promises very good, positive cooperation in the future. I personally welcome all that, thank you again, I hope we will meet again."

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