On July 21, the 37th sitting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation between the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation presided over by the RF FA Deputy Speaker of the RF FA Federation Council Yury Vorobyov and the RA NA Vice President Hakob Arshakyan took place in the city of Irkutsk of Russia.

In his welcoming speech, Hakob Arshakyan underlined that the friendship of the Armenian and the Russian peoples was formed during the centuries-old history, and those relations are considered to be the basis of the Armenian-Russian inter-state cooperation, which today develops based on the principles of allied interaction.

The NA Vice President touched upon the regional security and the existing threats and the illegal blocking of the Lachin Corridor.

“It has been already 7 months since the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno Karabakh with the outside world, is illegally blocked by the authorities of Azerbaijan. The efforts of Armenia are directed to resuming the peaceful process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. We conscientiously take part in the negotiations, but in parallel with the negotiations we still face the threat of force and the use of force. The population of Nagorno Karabakh is facing a risk of ethnic cleansing and areal threat of genocide,” Hakob Arshakyan underlined.

The RF FA Deputy Speaker of the RF FA Federation Council Yury Vorobyov also stressed the friendship formed during the centuries-old history of the Armenian and Russian peoples, the role of Diaspora within the framework of the Armenian-Russian inter-state cooperation.

At the end of the sitting, a Memoranda of Cooperation were signed between the Kotayk Marz/Region of Armenia and the Irkutsk Oblast/Region of Russia, the cities of Armavir and Irkutsk.

By Hakob Arshakyan’s proposal, the 38th sitting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on the Armenian-Russian Cooperation will be held in the city of Dilijan, in Armenia in 2024.