YEREVAN. – Speaker of the Republic of Armenia National Assembly (RA NA), Alen Simonyan, on Thursday received a delegation led by Mark Demesmaeker, head of the Belgium-Armenia friendship group of the Belgian parliament, the NA informs Armenian News-NEWS.am

The RA NA President asked the Head of the Delegation to convey warm greetings to the President of the House of Representatives Eliane Tillieux and to the President of the Senate Stephanie D'Hose. He underlined that Armenia highlights the contacts with Belgium at high level. In this context the cooperation in the formats of Friendship Groups was considered a key one. The RA NA President considered as a best example of cooperation Mark Demesmaeker’s joining the addenda proposed to the draft resolution presented by the Armenian side during the annual session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly held in Birmingham from July 2 to 6.

Matters relating to the security of Armenia and the guarantee of the rights of Armenian population of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) were also discussed at the meeting.

“We expect that our Belgian colleagues will continue making efforts for the immediate return of Armenian prisoners of war [in Azerbaijan] and preventing the systemized destruction of Armenian historical, cultural, and religious heritage in the territories of Artsakh that have come under the Azerbaijani control,” Simonyan noted.

Also, he expressed confidence that like during the 2020 war, now as well the Belgian colleagues will raise their voice to condemn the recent military aggression unleashed by the military and political leadership of Azerbaijan against Armenia.