President Vahagn Khachaturyan received the delegation led by Martine Vassal, President of the French Bouches-du-Rhône Department and the World Bank Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis

President of the Republic Vahagn Khachaturyan received the delegation led by Martine Vassal, President of the French Bouches-du-Rhône Department and Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis.

Welcoming the guests, the President noted. "I am happy to host you at the Presidential residence of the Republic of Armenia. Rest assured that it is always a pleasure for us to meet official and unofficial French delegations.I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the great work you are doing in strengthening Armenian-French relations. I would also like to extend my special gratitude to the President of France Macron, the National Assembly of France, the Senate, all the deputies, as well as representatives of the local authorities of France for their assistance, what they have been providing over the years, especially during the events related to Nagorno-Karabakh, and today also with the issue of social and humanitarian assistance provided to our compatriots displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh. I would like to emphasize once again that the Armenian-French relations have a thousand-year history, and we can talk about many important events related to each period. However, today I would like to highlight especially the great support that France has shown to the Republic of Armenia since independence. I appreciate your visit today as an additional factor contributing to the work done and another step to stimulate the strengthening of our relations."

Thanking for the reception, Martine Vassal noted: "Mr. President, we are very touched by the hospitality, warm words and the attitude we meet in Armenia. The Armenian-French friendship really has a centuries-old history, and our visit is intended to give a new impetus to our partnership."

During the meeting, issues related to the broad agenda of the Armenian-French cooperation were discussed. The opportunities of partnership and the implementation of joint programs between individual cities of the two countries were touched upon. The sides stressed the importance of the contribution of efforts towards expanding the development of existing cooperation in the economic and business spheres.

During the conversation, the sides exchanged views on the internal and external general situation and current developments in Armenia. The sides also referred to the programs and planned steps implemented by Armenia in the direction of solving social-humanitarian and complex housing problems of internally displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh.