President Serzh Sargsyan’s working visit to the Kingdom of the Netherlands

President Serzh Sargsyan who is in the Kingdom of the Netherlands on a working visit last evening met with the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Popov (Russia), James Warlick (USA), Jacques Faure (France) and Anjey Kasperchik, the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman in office. The Co-Chairs discussed with the President of Armenia issues pertaining to the current situation of the peaceful resolution process of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the subsequent steps.

President Serzh Sargsyan the same day met with the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte. At first, the President thanked Prime Minister Rutte for his invitation to take part in the summit held in The Hague by noting that it also afforded a convenient opportunity to discuss the agenda of the Armenian-Dutch relations and to further reinforce the bilateral ties. Serzh Sargsyan underscored that Armenia stressed the importance of continually developing friendly relations with the Netherlands and enlarging collaboration in the spheres of policy, trade and commerce, science, as well as in other spheres of reciprocal concern.

The parties mentioned that the trade and commercial ties played a special role in the Armenian-Dutch cooperation: the Netherlands continued to be one of the leading trade partners of Armenia among EU member states. Nevertheless, President Serzh Sargsyan and Prime Minster Rutte, considered the current level unsatisfactory yet and stressed the importance of bilateral consistent steps to foster the trade and commercial ties, to improve the economic indicators considering that the main legal documents necessary for that existed.

The interlocutors were sure that there were prospects of developing cooperation in the spheres of information technologies, agriculture, pharmaceutics, road constructing, as well as in a number of other spheres.

The President of Armenia and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands also touched upon the Armenia-EU relations. Serzh Sargsyan stressed the importance of maintaining the cooperation level of the Armenia-EU relations achieved previously and its subsequent advancement in accordance with the joint declaration made in the framework of the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius and the letters exchanged between the RA Minister of Foreign Affairs and the EU’s High Representative. According to the President, on that road our country also relied on the Netherlands as an EU founding state.

At the meeting, the parties also exchanged opinions on regional problems and challenges. President Serzh Sargsyan presented the interlocutor the current situation of the settlement process of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Last evening, in the framework of the working visit Serzh Sargsyan also held a meeting with the representatives of the Armenian community in the Netherlands. During the talk which took place in a warm atmosphere, the President of Armenia touched upon the Armenia-Diaspora relations, the foreign and internal policy of Armenia, the social and economic issues, the current situation of the Armenian-Dutch bilateral ties, the prospect of developing a political dialogue between the two countries, as well as answered the various questions of the participants of the meeting.

From 24-25 March, in the framework of the visit the President will take part in the Nuclear Security Summit held in The Hague. This evening, on behalf of the King of the Netherlands Willem Alexander a reception will be organized in honor of the leaders of the delegations taking part in the Summit.