Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan on Tuesday met with President of the Senate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Anthonie Bruijn on the sidelines of the 5th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament in Vienna and, after exchanging greetings, stated that he gladly recalls the rather fruitful visit that the delegation led by him paid to the Netherlands at the invitation of Anthonie Bruijn in October 2019, as reported the press service of the Staff of the National Assembly of Armenia.

The Armenian parliamentary speaker stated that the friendly relations between the two countries and parliaments are developing rather harmoniously, brilliant evidence of which is also the opening of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Yerevan in September 2020.

Simonyan reaffirmed the willingness to deepen the cooperation between the parliaments of both countries and set aside three challenges that Armenia anticipates political support from its partners to overcome, including establishment of peace in the region, a solution to the issue of Armenian prisoners of war and effective implementation of the Armenia-European Union Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.

Simonyan expressed gratitude to the partners of the Parliament of the Netherlands for the nearly 17 resolutions condemning the war that Azerbaijan unleashed against Artsakh in the fall of 2020 and the consequences.

During the discussion, the parliamentary speaker viewed the phony trials over Armenian prisoners of war and detainees in Azerbaijan as unacceptable and reaffirmed that Armenia is interested in a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, within the framework of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.

The President of the Senate of the Netherlands attached importance to the opening of the Dutch embassy in Armenia and emphasized that the resolutions that the Parliament of the Netherlands adopted during the 44-day war sparked wide reactions in Armenian society.

At the end of the meeting, Bruijn reaffirmed the willingness to support the activities of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in the region. Simonyan invited his Dutch counterpart to pay an official visit to Armenia.