YEREVAN. – Armenian National Assembly (NA) Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan on Tuesday received United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Ambassador Catherine Jane Leach.   

The NA leader noted that the Armenian-British cooperation is growing and Armenia underscores the deepening of interaction with the UK, NA press service informs. Abrahamyan stressed that Armenia attaches a huge importance to developing ties with the EU member countries and European integration is a priority of the country’s foreign policy. In the NA Speaker’s conviction, improving relations between the legislative bodies of Armenia and Great Britain is important in terms of expanding cooperation.   

“I, as the NA Speaker, stand ready to exert efforts to enhance the Armenian-British interparliamentary cooperation and to assist in all initiatives that contribute to the strengthening of friendship of our two countries and peoples,” Hovik Abrahamyan noted, and, also, pointed to the need for enhancing economic cooperation between Armenia and the UK.      

Ambassador Leach likewise underscored the need to deepen the Armenian-British interaction and highlighted the improving of interparliamentary ties. The diplomat stressed that Great Britain, as an EU member country, calls attention to the development of Armenia-EU cooperation and salutes Armenia’s efforts in this direction.  

The interlocutors discussed regional matters, the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, the case of Ramil Safarov—the Azerbaijani army officer who had killed with an axe Armenian soldier Gurgen Margaryan in Budapest back in 2004 and who was released in Azerbaijan this year—, and other issues of bilateral interest.