President receives Austrian National Council member and APP Parliamentary Group Leader Reinhold Lopatka

President Serzh Sargsyan today received Austrian National Council member Reinhold Lopatka, Leader of the Parliamentary Group of the Austrian People’s Party (APP) and APP Vice-President.

Serzh Sargsyan welcomed the guest and attached importance to his visit to Armenia both in terms of strengthening the traditionally friendly relationship between Armenia and Austria and giving fresh impetus to inter-parliamentary cooperation. The Armenian president said that it is a great honor for him to host the Austrian parliamentary group leader, who is interested in issues of great concern for Armenians and has made his personal contribution to the adoption of the statement recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide. The president stressed that with the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Austria took an important step towards the prevention of genocides and crimes against humanity.
Serzh Sargsyan said that such meetings provide a good opportunity to establish and strengthen inter-party ties, adding that membership in the EPP could also stimulate cooperation between the Republican Party of Armenia and the APP.

The interlocutors agreed that humanitarian and cultural ties serve as an important bridge between the two peoples, which greatly stimulate the reinforcement of high-level Armenian-Austrian relations and the development of trade and economic collaboration.

Reinhold Lopatka expressed his thanks to the Armenian president for the warm welcome and underscored that he is sure the Armenian-Austrian cooperation needs to develop in several directions, including an inter-parliamentary one, in which the friendship group represents all the political forces, as well as within the frame of the Austria-based APP Political Academy. In that regard, he expressed readiness to try his best to promote and deepen that cooperation.