YEREVAN. - Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan today received Cypriot National Defense Minister Christoforos Fokaides, who is on an official visit to Armenia.

Serzh Sargsyan welcomed the guest, attaching importance to the high-level reciprocal visits in terms of strengthening the interstate bilateral relations. The President stressed that the Armenian people highly appreciate the representation of Cyprus at presidential and parliamentary levels during the Armenian Genocide Commemoration Ceremony on April 24. Sargsyan considered this step as vivid expression of complete solidarity and sincere friendship towards the Armenian people, stressing that Armenia will always remember and mention this fact.

The interlocutors referred to the centuries-old history of the Armenia-Cyprus friendship. They attached great importance to maintaining the existing dynamics of the bilateral interstate political dialogue between the countries, which, according to them, enables to constantly be aware of and find corresponding solutions to priority issues of both sides.

Serzh Sargsyan and Christoforos Fokaides also touched on the military cooperation and its further deepening in the climate of solid ground and mutual trust between Armenia and Cyprus. In this respect, the parties welcomed the operation of the Armenian-Cypriot joint intergovernmental commission on military and military-technical cooperation.