Armenia’s visa liberalization process with the European Union (EU) is progressing as normal. Minister of Internal Affairs Arpine Sargsyan stated this in an interview with the state-funded Public Television of the Republic of Armenia (RA).

“That is, we [i.e. Armenia] have launched a dialogue, after which we received an action plan from our [EU] partners, which very clearly presents what is expected of the Armenian side. Now we are implementing specific measures. During this period, we have had assessment missions and will continue to do so.

This means the European side will regularly observe the action plan, see which ones have been implemented and which have not,” the Armenian interior minister added. She noted that the first progress report was very positive from European partners. “An unprecedented assessment was recorded.

Armenia has ensured the performance at a progressive pace, especially the integrated border management component of the biometric system, and the work done in the remaining directions has been assessed positively,” Sargsyan said.

She emphasized that the work plan will be fully implemented as of November 1. “We can achieve visa liberalization in the shortest possible time. The year 2029 is the RA government’s commitment to the political target to ensure the implementation of all actions envisaged in the action plan, leaving the ball in the EU’s court to make a relevant decision.

Our target was the biometric system, which will be ready on November 1. Why the year 2029? Since it is the integrated border management component. There are many layers here, we shall address everything from staff training to physical and digital infrastructure; there is a lot to be done here,” she said.

Referring to the statement made by Paula Pinho, chief spokesperson for the European Commission of the EU, that it is too early to talk about the timeframe for visa liberalization with Armenia, the Armenian minister of internal affairs said: "Her uttered sentences were manipulatively placed in the public domain.

The Ms. spokesperson did not deny or refute in any way the EU's dialogue with Armenia. She only emphasized, as an administrative official, that it is still too early to say exactly when visa liberalization will take place, simultaneously continued that they are strengthening relations with Armenia and logically moving forward."