President Vahagn Khachaturyan met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan

President of the Republic of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan today.

President Vahagn Khachaturyan: First of all, Mr. Prime Minister, I wish to once again express my support to you and the Government in the policy that you are implementing along with the Government aimed at establishing peace in the region.

In this regard, last week there were important events in our political life starting with the meeting in Brussels after which you clearly expressed the stance of the Government of the Republic of Armenia according to which we recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and expect the same from Azerbaijan.

I believe this was a very important statement and also a proof that we are not merely talking about peace but we are committed to ultimately establishing peace in the region. I believe that our neighbor should also realize this and appreciate the steps you and the Government are taking. In fact, what the Government is going for today, I mean the steps that are taken both domestically and in the foreign policy, are aimed at this.

As you are aware, I was on a working visit to Qatar and I met with various officials and colleagues there. One of the most important meetings was with the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva.

I was pleased to hear her opinion which I would like to convey to you as well.
They consider Armenia as a full partner that fulfills its agreements and commitments, a reliable partner in terms of financial stability and execution of obligations. During our meeting, an additional agreement was reached to continue working in the same fashion. They are willing to make additional investments, provide additional financial support.

The same was noted during the meetings with my colleagues, the Emir of Qatar, they are ready and waiting for our proposals. Qatar is a dynamically developing country, it has achieved success in a surprisingly short time. It seems to be solely a resource-based country, but as a matter of fact, in its logic of development, Qatar is a country with a modern, high-tech, knowledge-based economy, and in the person of Qatar, we have a partner ready for cooperation. I hope that we will touch upon these issues today.

I would like to assure you once again that I do and will support all the programs implemented by you that are aimed at establishing peace in the region to the best of my ability.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan: Thank you, Mr. President, first of all thank you for your words of support and also for the invitation. Yes, we regularly hold meetings in a public format, but of course, we also have many more informal meetings: we discuss, consult, and try to understand what the best solutions are for our country.

Obviously, I agree with you that these public meetings are also important so that our people can see that there is institutional cooperation and interaction between different branches of the government. On the other hand, it is of utmost importance that these mechanisms of government coordination function effectively.

On this account, I can attest that a very constructive cooperation has been established between the President-Parliament-Government trio which is highly important specifically in this period. I also deem it important that the policies of the Government are discussed and consulted with the Parliament and the President, but of course, this is does not affect the responsibility in any manner. The Government fully bears it and must bear it. However, it is extremely important to know the perspective of the most important institutions of the state on these issues.

I am also pleased to state that in our meetings, in fact, a trend has been formed: the more we have met so far, the more we have recorded good economic indicators in our country. I wish to express hope that this tradition of ours will not change in any way. In this regard, I also consider our cooperation with international economic and financial institutions to be important since we are very zealous in raising Armenia's rating. It is truly essential since not everyone researches the country in every detail. In many cases, they request the opinion of the international institutions or familiarize with their published opinions. Therefore, we try to manifest ourselves as a committed partner.

As for the regional situation, of course I had the opportunity to state today that the statements made by Azerbaijan after our last meetings and the Brussels agreements at least raise questions, and I believe we should try to find an answer to a clear question, whether these statements mean waiver of agreements reached. I also believe that we need to communicate this issue to our international partners, because in all cases the reliability of agreements is an important prerequisite since when agreements are reached and they are not implemented of course it is a problem in all kinds of relations including international and interstate ones.

Mr. President, I will also share my impressions and information from the recent discussions and negotiations. Of course, we managed to discuss a part of it already, currently the process is very intense but I will also inform you about the upcoming plans, what is foreseen on our international agenda.