The working visit of the delegation led by the Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan to Vienna continues. On September 8, within the framework of the visit, Alen Simonyan met with President of the National Council of Austria Wolfgang Sobotka.
The Armenian parliamentary speaker thanked his counterpart for holding the Conference at a high level. Simonyan highlighted Wolfgang Sobotka’s contribution to further deepening and development of inter-parliamentary and inter-state relations between two countries. According to the Head of Parliament, Armenia considers the inter-parliamentary cooperation and the undertaking of necessary steps for intensifying contacts a priority.
He underlined that, despite the obstacles caused by COVID-19, there has been rather active cooperation between the Parliamentary Friendship Groups. In this context, the Armenian parliamentary speaker considered the entry into effect of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement a turning point, which will open new perspectives for deepening of the Armenia-EU cooperation.
The sides touched upon the negotiations of the dialogue over the Armenia-EU visa liberalization. The Head of the Armenian Parliament affirmed that today Armenia has an agenda for the establishment of long-lasting and sustainable peace in the region. With its foreign policy, Armenia is guided by the principle of combining interests, which allows Armenia to pursue a balanced and flexible foreign policy.
In his turn, Wolfgang Sobotka highly appreciated Armenia’s democratic achievements, and the recent snap parliamentary elections serve as brilliant evidence of this. It was noted that Armenia welcomes the efforts of Austria for strengthening peace and stability, forming an atmosphere of mutual trust in the region, boosting regional cooperation, as well as resolving the Artsakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.
Wolfgang Sobotka expressed conviction that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be settled in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. The sides discussed in detail the works to be done for immediate release of prisoners of war detained in Azerbaijan. Simonyan thanked the parliamentarians of Austria for the discussions and statements of the parliament condemning the aggression during the war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh in autumn 2020.
