MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
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PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
375010 Telephone: +37410. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +37410. 562543
Email: [email protected]
PRESS RELEASE
05-04-2006
Minister Oskanian Receives
EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Ambassador Peter Semneby
Minister Oskanian, on April 5, received Peter Semneby, the newly appointed
EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus. Ambassador Semneby is in
Armenia on his first working visit.
The Minister congratulated the ambassador on his appointment and wished him
good luck in his mission. He continued by noting how much Armenia
appreciated the activity of the EU representation in the South Caucasus, and
specifically the valuable work of Ambassasdor Heikki Talvitie, the first EU
representative.
During the lengthy discussion, Minister Oskanian and Ambassador Semneby
exchanged views on a vast range of issues relating to regional cooperation,
conflict settlement, and Armenia-EU relations.
They discused the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process at length. In
this regard, Minister Oskanian presented Ambassador Semneby with recent
developments, as well as Armenia’s approach to the process of negotiations.
The Minister and the Ambassador also touched on the European Neighbourhood
Policy Action Plan with Armenia, as well as on some aspects of
Armenian-Turkish relations.
A joint press conference followed the meeting.
Minister Oskanian and Ambassador Semneby continued their talks over lunch,
together with Fokion Fotiadis, the European Commission’s Deputy Director of
the Directorate General for External Relations.
Ambassador Peter Semneby was born in 1959. He was educated at the Stockholm
School of Economics, University of Uppsala, University of Stockholm, and the
John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. His most recent
assignment was as Head of the OSCE Mission to Croatia between 2002 and 2005.
>From 2000 to 2002, he was Head of the OSCE Mission to Latvia. He was
responsible for European Security and Defense Policy in the Swedish Ministry
for Foreign Affairs from 1997 to 2000. Earlier, he had served at the Swedish
embassies in Germany, Ukraine and the USSR, and was a member of the OSCE
Mission to Georgia in 1992. In addition to his native Swedish, Ambassador
Semneby speaks English, French, German, Russian and Croatian/Serbian.