YEREVAN. – On October 28, the President of the RA National Assembly Ararat Mirzoyan, being on an official visit in the Republic of Italy, met with the President of the Senate of Italy Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati.

Welcoming the President of the Senate, Ararat Mirzoyan has extremely highlighted the Armenian-Italian inter-parliamentary contacts and expressed conviction that with this visit a basis is laid for more active cooperation, as well as in multilateral formats, the NA informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. Ararat Mirzoyan has stressed that the parliamentary system functioning in our two countries contain bigger opportunities and potential, and it is necessary to fully implement it. The sides recorded with satisfaction that during recent period the contacts between the Friendship Groups have activated. An agreement was reached also to more closely cooperate at the level of the OSCE PA and PACE delegations.

The NA President expressed his gratitude for ratification of the RA-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership on 25 September 2019. Both sides expressed hope that it would be ratified in the near future also by the Chamber of Deputies of Italy. With regards to this Ararat Mirzoyan has informed that the Armenian side expects also the Italian colleagues support in starting the visa liberalization dialogue process.

Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati expressed satisfaction with the enlivening of the contacts at high level between the two countries, especially underlining the meetings and discussions that had become frequent between the deputies of the National Assembly of Armenia and the Senate of Italy, also at the level of the Committees.

Touching upon the Nagorno Karabakh issue, Casellati has noted that Italy continues remaining faithful to the balanced position of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship. Answering to Ararat Mirzoyan’s observation that the platform of the Italian Parliament is sometimes used for making speculations without promoting the peaceful process in the NK problem, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati has stated that the approaches of the Parliament of Italy are consonant with the official position of the state.

At the meeting the sides reflected upon the activation of the economic and cultural ties between the two countries.