Armenia’s President, who is on a working visit to Latvia, took part in Armenia’s President, who is on a working visit to Latvia, took part in the Eastern Partnership European People’s Party Leaders Summit.

At the meeting Sargsyan delivered a speech in which he mentioned that Armenia’s European agenda remains a foreign policy priority for Armenia, which is committed to deepen and further consolidate its cooperation with the EU, Armenia's President's office press service reports. 

“It is important to preserve the characteristic and common features, which unite us in the Partnership. We strongly believe that such a commonality shall remain rooted in the adherence of the all Partner States to shared values, such as development of democracy, human rights, rule of law, and ensuring peace and stability in the region. Therefore, our future cooperation shall continue to be rooted in our adherence, in good faith, to build and develop democratic societies and institutes, fight against corruption, conduct of free and fair elections, independence of judiciary, and establishment of a market economy based on free competition,” Sargsyan said.

Sargsyan said he welcomed that Towards New European Neighborhood Policy concept paper presented by the European Commission addresses the requirement to take into account the real needs of the Partner States and to display tailor-made approaches, which indeed would contribute to discovering new avenues and perspectives for cooperation with the EU.

“With its balanced policy Armenia have avoided setting a new hotbed of tension in the current complicated circumstances of the European geopolitics; moreover, it has managed to build its policy on the premises of compatibility, equilibrium and multi-vectored cooperation with different integration systems.These very principles will serve as a basis for the envisaged legal document to govern relations between Armenia and EU, for conclusion of which we count on your support,” he said.

Referring to Ukraine conflict, Sargsyan said that the comprehensive settlement of the state of affairs in Ukraine is of primary significance both for the future of the country and relaxation of the current international tension. He expressed hope that the farsighted attitude correctly appraising the situation will win over here as well. “Solutions will be found to respect mutual concerns, and the only stable avenue will be paved for mutual understanding; and, throughout every stage of these processes joint endeavors leading to comprehensive settlement will prevail over dissemination of one-sided fault-finding public statements, a temptation that leads nowhere. Unfortunately, I detect such signals also in the EPP declaration of today, on the several paragraphs of which we have not been able to reach consensus. In my view, the basic reason of that was that the EPP partners have not been fully engaged in the drafting exercise,” he said.

Sargsyan also touched on Karabakh conflict, which “continues to be one of the most serious challenges both to our regional and European security.”  Sargsyan said Azerbaijan has not ceased resorting to its usual practice of provocations, threats and anti-Armenian propaganda, thus protracting the conflict settlement process. “The anti-Armenian campaign in Azerbaijan is coupled with egregious human rights violations, and it has been a while that the opponents to the regime are labeled as Armenian spying agents. The irresponsible steps of Azerbaijan, which threaten the security of the region we share, shall not go unnoticed by our European partners. Those steps deserve adequate assessment. Hence, I urge not to drift with the current generated by Azerbaijan in various international platforms, and by that avoid sharing responsibility with the latter for increasing tension in our region,” the president said.

Sargsyan also expressed gratitude to the EPP Political Assembly for adopting Resolution dedicated to the Armenian Genocide Centennial on March 3, 2015 entitled “The Armenian Genocide and European Values.”