President meets with Presidents of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies and Senate

President Serzh Sargsyan today held meetings with Laura Boldrini, President of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy, and Pietro Grasso, President of the Senate of the Republic.

Serzh Sargsyan thanked for the warm reception and said that it is a great honor for him to be in the wonderful city of Rome which is not only the capital of a friendly state, but also is a key regional center.

The RA President attached importance to meetings with heads of the legislature as part of his foreign visits, because, according to him, it is difficult to overestimate the role that the legislature plays in the development of interstate relations and in creating an atmosphere of mutual trust and mutual understanding. Noting that Armenia’s National Assembly has established a good tradition of friendly ties with parliaments of numerous European countries, the Armenian President stressed that it is high time to elevate the Armenian-Italian inter-parliamentary cooperation to a new level and that there is every prerequisite for that. According to the interlocutors, inter-parliamentary ties have long occupied their firm place on the agenda of Armenian-Italian multifaceted relations, the testimony of which is the existence of friendship groups in the two countries parliaments.

Serzh Sargsyan expressed satisfaction with his meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella which had taken place in an atmosphere of mutual trust and added that during the meeting they had attached great value to furthering achievements in regular political dialogue and in the cooperation areas of economy, culture and science, as well as stressed the importance of deepening inter-parliamentary ties.

During the RA President’s meetings with Laura Boldrini, President of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy, and Pietro Grasso, President of the Senate of the Republic, the parties exchanged views on issues pertaining to the promotion of cooperation between Armenia and the European Union (EU). Serzh Sargsyan underscored that the relationship with the EU continues to be one of Armenia’s key foreign policy priorities which is based, first of all, on a shared set of values. In that context, the President attached weight to Italy’s role in the promotion of comprehensive cooperation between Armenia and the EU. The Armenian President mentioned that Armenia highly values its cooperation with the EU in such areas as democracy, the rule of law, protection of fundamental freedoms, as well as the joint projects in the field of sustainable development and good governance.

At the meeting, the parties reflected upon the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and the challenges and problems in the South Caucasian region.