President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, who is in the United States of America to take part in the 70th Regular Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York, on Tuesday met with the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Ban Ki-moon.

The President congratulated the Secretary-General upon the 70th jubilee of the organization, stressing that ever since Armenia joined the UN 23 years ago, it has felt supported by the organization from the very first day. Sargsyan expressed his satisfaction with the successful end of the final summit of the program “Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” a few days ago, in which the UN Secretary-General has played his part. Armenia’s president expressed the hope that the new comprehensive program will help raise the quality of living conditions for all people on the planet.

At the meeting, the parties touched upon the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. The president informed Ban Ki-moon about the current phase of the conflict, the present-day problems and especially about the tensions caused by the resent ceasefire violations of Azerbaijan at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the Karabakh-Azerbaijan line of contact, and which he had also touched upon at the 70th session of the UN General Assembly. The UN Secretary-General expressed his concern over the current tensions, and stressed the need for a settlement mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.

The interlocutors also exchanged views on the present-day international matters, and the worrisome events—new conflicts, increasing terrorism and extremism, and growing tensions in the Near and Middle East—that are occurring in the world.

Ban Ki-moon welcomed and thanked Armenia for the steps to provide refugees from northern Iraq and Syria with safe haven in the country.

The UN Secretary-General also attached importance to the forum on global challenges of peacekeeping, and which will be held in the near future in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan.