POLISH, ARMENIAN FMS SEAL COOPERATION MEMO
Xinhua General News Service
February 16, 2009 Monday 3:55 PM EST
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and his Armenian counterpart
Edward Nalbandian sealed here on Monday a cooperation memorandum
forging closer ties between both countries in the fields of commerce,
science and education.
At a following press conference the two ministers stressed that the
act confirmed the close ties between their countries.
Armenia and Poland had had good relations for the past thousand years
and that both countries "had undergone much suffering over history,"
Sikorski was quoted by Polish news agency PAP as saying.
Sikorski also praised Armenia’s decision to join Poland’s and Sweden’s
Eastern Partnership integration program.
Launched last year as a Polish-Swedish EU project, Eastern Partnership
is a multi-phase European integration scheme for Ukraine, Moldova,
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Belarus.
Referring to political tension in Armenia’s region, Sikorski said
Armenia was in an area which needed stabilization and that Poland
"wanted to play a role in this mission."
Between 1988 and 1994 Armenia and Azerbaijan waged heavy battles for
the enclave Nagorno-Karabakh, which eventually joined Armenia.
Nalbandian, who is here for a two-day visit, said Polish- Armenian
relations were developing "very dynamically" and expressed hope that
the memorandum with Poland would help enhance mutual cooperation.