Baltic News Service / - BNS
 Tuesday 1:51 PM EET


Estonian parlt committee chairs on a working visit to Armenia





TALLINN, May 30, BNS - Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the foreign
affairs committee of the Estonian parliament, and Hannes Hanso,
chairman of the national defense committee, are on a working visit to
Armenia on Tuesday and Wednesday, where their meetings with the
representatives of the government and the parliament will focus on
bilateral relations and the European Union's Eastern Partnership
program.

"The Eastern Partnership program of the European Union is one of the
central foreign policy issues of the Estonian EU presidency, and
therefore the meetings in Armenia will focus on it," Mihkelson said.
"Although Armenia has decided to join the Eurasian Economic Union,
which is led by Russia, there will certainly be room for cooperation
also with the European Union."

Mihkelson said that Estonia has shared with Armenia its best
transition and reform experience practices in building up democratic
institutions, and is ready to do that also in the future. So far the
development cooperation has concerned the e-state and the educational
sector. There have been several projects to support the development of
democracy, the IT sector, and business.

Mihkelson emphasized that the main challenge of the Eastern
Partnership policy in the coming years is deepening the relations
between Armenia and the EU, and the continuing democratization of the
country. He expressed hope that the framework agreement between
Armenia and the EU would be signed during the Estonian EU presidency.

Hanso said that in recent years the foreign and security policy
priorities of Armenia have been aimed at the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) and Russia. In his opinion, there is high
potential for developing bilateral relations mainly in business,
education, civil society and the IT services sector.

"Keeping in mind the close defense cooperation between Armenia and
Russia, we do not see the need or wish for closer defense cooperation
with Armenia at the moment. But it is important to keep the
communication channels open and to hear also Armenia's positions. And
we are always ready to discuss new ideas and initiatives," Hanso said.

Hanso said that the relations between Armenia and Russia are good only
conditionally, and actually Russia only wants to have more control in
the region. "At the same time we know that nobody wants the status of
a little brother," he said. "The Armenian society is rather
disappointed with Russia's behaviour, and sees through the propaganda.
Therefore it is very important to support the development of civil
society."

During the visit Mihkelson and Hanso are also scheduled to meet with
Eduard Sharmazanov, deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament; Edward
Nalbandyan, minister of foreign affairs; Artak Zakaryan, first deputy
minister of defense; Armen Ashotyan, chairman of the National
Assembly's standing committee on foreign relations, and Kohyun
Nahapetyan, chairman of the National Assembly's standing committee on
defense and security, with whom they will discuss bilateral relations
and Armenia's relations with its neighbors and the situation in the
south Caucasus in general.

Mihkelson and Hanso on Wednesday will attend a conference on the
relations between the EU and Armenia, where the European Union's
neighborhood policy and ties with Russia and China will be discussed.
Mihkelson and Hanso will also be informed about the Armenian
e-learning portal Dasaran, which enables to provide equal access to
education for all children in Armenia. At present the portal connects
all public schools across Armenia and has nearly one million
registered users.

Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8832, sise@bns.ee

Baltic News Service