YEREVAN. – The Minister of Territorial Administration and Development of Armenia, Suren Papikyan, met with a delegation led by French Ambassador Jonathan Lacôte. The delegation comprised officials from the French Development Agency (AFD).

In particular, Papikyan lauded the relations between the two countries and peoples, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Also, the minister considered the close decentralized cooperation between the administrative and territorial units of France and Armenia as the cornerstone at the core of Armenian-French cooperation.

In addition, Papikyan stressed that the AFD was of crucial importance from the viewpoint of development of economic relations between Armenia and France.

Ambassador Lacôte, for his part, noted that after the events that occurred in Armenia last spring, the interest of French local self-governing bodies had grown dramatically in terms of expanding decentralized cooperation with Armenia.

Head of the AFD South Caucasus Office, Gaëlle Assayag, in turn, said, above all, their cooperation with the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development on various projects was productive.