The year 2024 has been the most peaceful and stable year in the last 20 years for our external security environment, in particular for the borders of the Republic of Armenia. This was stated by foreign minister Ararat Mirzoyan in the National Assembly of Armenia Friday—and during the debates on the implementation of the government's 2024 program.

"We condition this, of course, first of all by the foreign policy we are pursuing, the regional, international, active policy. The goal of our government is to preserve and strengthen the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, security of Armenia; this is priority number one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, number ten And we are convinced that this is the direct and main, if not the only way to ensure peace around Armenia, not only or not so much because peace is generally a good idea, on the contrary, it implies casualties, bloodshed, etc. Not only and not so much because peace is generally the environment, the only environment where a person can, I don’t know, create, live simply and be happy and develop, but peace also has a very practical, directly ontological significance for us.

To achieve the [aforesaid] goal, the [Armenian] government has adopted a balanced and balancing foreign policy, which is also expressed in the domain of regional policy—with the task of first diagnosing the negative, aggressive manifestations around Armenia, then managing these manifestations and, thanks to a well-thought-out and implemented policy, reducing all possible challenges, risks and, of course, zeroing them in the future," the Armenian FM said.

According to Mirzoyan, the legitimacy of policies from the point of view of international law and order continues to be key for Armenia.

The FM emphasized that humanitarian issues were also in the focus of their attention. "The resolution of humanitarian issues and, of course, first of all, the release of captives, hostages, and other detainees is a very important component for a comprehensive settlement.

Regarding the unblocking [of regional communications], I would like to add that we are still waiting for the official response of Azerbaijan on this proposal mentioned earlier. We believe that this proposal, if implemented, fully meets the interests of both countries, as well as the interests of regional countries and even more so countries located outside the region," the Armenian FM said.