National Assembly of Armenia
Oct 26 2006
Ambassador of Kingdom of Sweden at National Assembly
On October 25 the President of the National Assembly Mr. Tigran
Torosyan received the newly appointed Ambassador of the Kingdom of
Sweden in Armenia Mr. Hans Gunnar Adén. The honorable consul of the
Kingdom of Sweden in Armenia Edit Khachatryan also attended the
meeting.
Mr. Hans Gunnar informed the President of the National Assembly about
the redistribution of political forces as a result of the September
elections noting, that four parties have formed a coalition. The
President of the Swedish Parliament was also newly elected. The
Ambassador noted that his appointment proves the intention of Sweden
to develop relations with Armenia. He also stressed the importance of
including Armenia in the New Neighbourhood Programme of the European
Union and expressed a hope that the Action Plan to be signed in
November will be implemented most efficiently and will launch new
opportunities of development for Armenia, contribute to the
strengthening of democracy and economic progress. The Ambassador of
the Kingdom of Sweden also touched upon the forthcoming general
elections noting that the elections themselves, as well as the
pre-electoral period are going to be at the center of attention of
Europe, and it is expected that Armenia will show political will in
order to provide elections complying with democratic standards. Mr.
Hans Gunnar Adén considers as the purpose of his mission the
deepening of Swedish-Armenian cooperation and the development of
inter-parliamentary relations.
The President of the National Assembly Mr. Tigran Torosyan noted that
there are certain relations between the two countries, but the
inter-parliamentary relations are not sufficiently developed and are
still being established within the framework of cooperation through
international organizations. The two parties also stressed the
importance of the development of inter-party relations, which will in
its turn contribute to the strengthening of relations between the two
countries. Highlighting the importance of the success of the European
integration policy adopted by Armenia, the President of the National
Assembly informed the Ambassador about the ongoing parliamentary
debates on the Electoral Code. He noted that in elaborating the draft
of amendments to the Electoral Code, the National Assembly closely
cooperates with the experts of CE and OSCE, and that there are all
the bases for adopting the Electoral Code till the end of the year,
and thus creating good legislative grounds for holding the elections.
Anyway, only the law is not enough for holding the elections in
compliance with democratic standards, and the political forces have
to create a favorable atmosphere in the country in order to succeed.
Both parties stressed the importance of the observers’ participation
in the elections and the objectivity and impartiality of their
evaluations.
During the meeting the parties also touched upon the works of
complying the legislation with the Basic law after the constitutional
amendments, which comprise the human rights protection, judicial and
self-government systems. The President of the National Assembly
highlighted the importance of these legislative reforms from the view
of political, social and economic development and noted that during
the last 5-6 years Armenia has reached good indices of economic
development, and that the social and political changes of the coming
3-4 years have to target the strengthening of democracy, and thus to
contribute to the further economic development.
During the meeting other issues of mutual importance were also
discussed.