Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Russia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Sergey Lavrov held thorough talks and shared the results of the talks with mass media representatives.

During the joint press conference held in Yerevan today, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan stated that his Russian counterpart is visiting Armenia after his appointment and reminded that Sergey Lavrov had arrived in Yerevan yesterday and attended the exhibition dedicated to the contributions that Armenians made to the Victory in the Great Patriotic War (the exhibition marks the launch of events dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War).

The foreign minister stated that Russia and Armenia have relations in bilateral and multilateral formats and that cultural ties and concentrated cooperation are growing intensively. “In addition, the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs today signed a consultations plan for the years 2020 and 2021,” he said, adding that he had expressed gratitude to his Russian counterpart for Russia’s support to Armenians in Syria and had stated the importance of Armenia’s humanitarian mission in Syria.

During the meeting, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan stated the role of Russia and the other OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and, in this context, mentioned Russia’s efforts to hold a trilateral meeting in Moscow in April.

In his turn, Sergey Lavrov stated that the full-scale talks began after his meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and continued at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also stated that he and his Armenian colleagues had discussed joint projects in the fuel-energy and transport sectors. Sergey Lavrov also positively assessed Yerevan’s chairmanship in the Eurasian Economic Union and specifically mentioned the steps for expansion of the relations.

Talking about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Lavrov stated the importance of active efforts for strengthening of the measures to weaken tension, taking into consideration the existing disagreements. He concluded by saying that Russia is ready to provide assistance and show more active support in the OSCE framework and in the Armenia-Russia-Azerbaijan format.