We anticipate further support of our Greek partners to Armenia-European Union (EU) cooperation.

The Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian, stated the abovementioned in his address at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece.

“Greece is one of our key partners in Armenia-EU relations,” he said, in particular. “The past weeks were very remarkable in this regard. On November 24th Armenia signed a Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement [(CEPA)] with the European Union. Being an active member of the Eurasian Economic Union, Armenia develops its relations also with other integration formats. We hope that such pragmatic and result oriented dialogue will be the driving force of the cooperation for all in our wider region.

“The signing of CEPA is not a stand-alone example of the Armenia-EU partnership. In the past two years we have been able to deliver in different fields of mutual cooperation, namely joining COSME, ‘Creative Europe,’ HORIZON 2020 programs, initialing the Agreement on Common Aviation Area and signing the Protocol on High-level Mutual Understanding on extending the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) network to the Republic of Armenia, to name but a few. We are looking forward to the new endeavors, attaching particular importance among others to the launch of visa liberalization dialogue. We anticipate further support of our Greek partners to the Armenia-EU cooperation.

“Of course we are looking to the opportunities of expanding bilateral economic ties between Armenia and Greece. The work of the intergovernmental commission and the organization of the business forums could be helpful in this regard. As a result of Armenia’s accession to Eurasian Economic Union, new possibilities emerged for the trade and investments. Today, Armenia is a tax-free gateway to the 170 million strong Eurasian Economic Union’s market. Armenia enjoys preferential regime with the EU, US, Japan and others. We hope that the opportunities provided by the political developments would allow making full use of economic cooperation with our neighbor Iran with its 80 million strong market. The projects on Persian Gulf – Black Sea transport and connectivity routes could be illustrative in this regard.

“In a couple of days I will head to Kiev to assume the chairmanship of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. During Armenia’s chairmanship we will do our best to ensure that this Organization fully serves to its goals of boosting the regional economic cooperation between the member countries. It is our firm conviction that those who misuse this platform to advance their narrow political objectives at the expense of the economic cooperation not just contradict the goals of the Organization but are not genuinely interested in developing the regional economic partnership. And those who remain faithful to the objectives of the BSEC such as Armenia and Greece should strive to preserve the purely economic and non-politicized nature of this Organization.

“Two weeks ago Armenia assumed the chairmanship of the Ministerial Conference of the International Organisation of La Francophonie, which unites 84 countries, including Greece and will have the honor of hosting its Summit next October in Yerevan. The mantra of the Summit will be "Living together in solidarity, sharing humanistic values and respecting diversity as a source for peace and prosperity". We intend to organize in its framework a business forum of the Francophone area and would like to draw the attention of the business circles of the Hellenic Republic to this event.”