Armenian Minister of Interior Arpine Sargsyan on Thursday received Magnus Brunner, the European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration.

Welcoming the guest, Sargsyan noted that this is the first time that an EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration is visiting Armenia, which underlines the importance of assessing bilateral cooperation and the progress made.

The Minister of Interior of Armenia, as the chief negotiator of the Armenian side in the Armenia-EU visa liberalization process, assured that the Armenian government is fully committed to implementing the Visa Liberalization Action Plan (VLAP) in full, which is fully consistent with the sectoral reform agenda of the Armenian government.

According to her, the work envisaged by the program, both in migration and border management as well as law enforcement and justice, is already at various phases of implementation. It was also emphasized that since the start of the dialogue, Armenia has received the VLAP in an impressively short period of time compared to some other countries. This was immediately followed by the coordination of the competent departments under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Armenia in order to achieve targeted and timely results.

Commissioner Brunner, for his part, lauded the efforts invested in liberalizing the mobility of Armenian citizens to EU countries, and noted that the firm will and resources invested in this direction are already noticeable and appreciable. He expressed a conviction that Armenia's readiness to achieve high-quality, targeted, and timely progress with high performance will lead to the expected end result.

In turn, Minister Sargsyan assured that Armenia appreciates the EU's efforts aimed at managing migration flows and attaches special importance to the reduction of illegal flows from Armenia to EU countries in the visa liberalization process, as well as the formation of conscious and responsible migration behavior.

At the end of the meeting, the Minister of Interior of Armenia expressed gratitude to the EU for its continuous support and active negotiation process only with Armenia, and emphasized the readiness to continue practical cooperation with high quality.