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Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian meets the European
Union’s Troika delegation

On July 20, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received the
European Union’s Troika delegation headed by Carl Bildt, the Foreign
Minister of the Kingdom of Sweden.

In his welcoming remarks, Edward Nalbandian expressed satisfaction on
expansion and deepening of Armenia-European Union
cooperation. Stressing the significant contribution of the EU in the
development of Armenia, Minister Nalbandian mentioned that Armenia
will continue its foreign policy towards rapprochement with the
European family and intends to implement necessary steps and reforms
in that direction.

Minister Bildt thanked for the warm reception and said that the
Eastern dimension is among the priorities of the EU Swedish
Presidency. Foreign Minister of Sweden expressed his support the
democratic reforms in Armenia.

The two had discussed issues related to Armenia-EU relationship, the
ways of strengthening and expanding cooperation and joint steps to be
taken in this direction. The sides emphasized with satisfaction that
an efficient cooperation is going on between Armenia and the European
Union in a number of formats.

Edward Nalbandian and Carl Bildt attached importance to the presence
of the EU advisory group in Armenia, which assists the process of
reforms implemented in Armenia, agreement on which was reached during
the visit of the President of Armenia to Brussels on November 2008.

The Foreign Ministers also discussed issues related to deepening of
Armenian-Swedish cooperation and emphasized with satisfaction that the
ties between the businessmen of the two countries have become recently
considerably active.

The agenda of the meeting also included the Armenian-Turkish
normalization. It was noted that the European Union supports the steps
undertaken in that direction.

They also touched upon the negotiations on the Artsakh issue and
reaffirmed that the settlement of the conflict is possible only in a
peaceful way, on the basis of the norms of international law: the
principles of self-determination, territorial integrity and of non-use
of force or threat of force.

The meeting was followed by a joint press conference of Edward
Nalbandian and Carl Bildt.