AMBASSADOR OF AUSTRIA IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

National Assembly of RA
March 4 2009
Armenia

On March 3 the RA NA President Mr Hovik Abrahamyan received the
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of
Austria to the Republic of Armenia Mr Marius Kaligaris.

Highly assessing the Armenian-Austrian relations the NA President Mr
Hovik Abrahamyan highlighted the development of bilateral relations and
the activation of inter-parliamentary cooperation and the cooperation
at the level of committees and MPs. Considering the European
integration as one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy Mr
Abrahamyan noted that the Action Plan of the European Neighbourhood
policy opened new perspectives of development in all directions and in
this context he highlighted the deepening of relations with Austria
as EU member. To his conviction, in this aspect there is big unused
potential of cooperation with Austria. Noting the visits of the past
years the NA President Mr Hovik Abrahamyan considered useful the visit
of the Austrian colleagues to the National Assembly and invited on an
official visit to Armenia the newly elected President of the Austrian
Parliament Mrs Barbara Prammer.

Reserving a special role to the parliament in the development of
the relations of the two countries the Ambassador Mr Marius Kaligaris
highlighted the deepening of the Armenian-Austrian relations within the
EU New Neighbourhood framework, too.The Ambassador noted that Austria
highlighted the deepening of relations with South Cuacasian region,
noting with satisfaction the current high level of cooperation. In
this context was highlighted the European Union-Eastern Neighbours
programme, where the three republics of the South Caucasus, Moldova,
Ukraine and Belarus were included.

Mr Kaligaris considered necessary the activation of the
inter-parliamentary relations, noting that in the newly elected
National Council of Austria the establishment of the committee on
Austria-South Caucasus-Middle Asia parliamentary cooperation was
envisaged, which would boost the inter-parliamentary relations and
make the cooperation full and constructive.

During the meeting the perspectives of the development of bilateral
relations, as well as other issues concerning the inner-political
situation of Armenia and of bilateral interest were also discussed.