Armenpress News Agency , Armenia Thursday Vice Speaker Sharmazanov says Armenia successfully runs diversified foreign policy YEREVAN, JANURY 25, ARMENPRESS. It was once again reaffirmed that Armenia runs a diversified foreign policy, Vice Speaker of the Parliament Eduard Sharmazanov told a press conference in Armenpress, stating that as the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at PACE Armenia is an EAEU, CSTO member, Russia’s ally, but at the same time the country managed to keep very good relations with the EU countries, in particular, with France. “France is a friendly country for Armenia, and the Armenian-French relations are dynamically developing in all spheres, including political, economic, cultural and inter-parliamentary directions. You know that Armenia will host the Francophonie summit in October and Armenia will become one of the world’s political centers during this period”, he said. Presidents Sargsyan and Macron clearly stated that everything will be done for the development of the Armenian-French ties. Eduard Sharmazanov said this was Sargsyan-Macron first meeting, but the existing mutual understanding was evident. “What has been stated by Armenia? Armenia will continue the democracy development, institutional reforms. Macron said France will always assist Armenia. They highly appreciate Armenia’s democratization efforts which is at the crossroads of the cultures of East and West”, Sharmazanov said. As for the Artsakh issue, the Vice Speaker attached importance to the fact that during a joint statement with the President of France, as one of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair country, Serzh Sargsyan once again clearly stated that the Nagorno Karabakh fight is fight for freedom, human rights. In addition to this, the Armenian side supports exclusively the peaceful settlement of the conflict. “In his turn the French President clearly stated that the conflict should be settled exclusively peacefully and through mutual concessions and this must be followed by concrete steps. These concrete steps are the implementation of the Geneva, St. Petersburg and Vienna agreements. It’s Azerbaijan that torpedoes these agreements, not Armenia and Artsakh”, Sharmazanov stated. Commenting on the Armenian President’s speech at PACE, Eduard Sharmazanov said when tangible reforms are talked about and when the citizen will feel them, today this was very clear. “If we go back for a couple of years, we will see what words the European friends were using in regard to the inner-political situation in Armenia and what words they are using now. Mr. Jagland clearly stated that Armenia moves on the right path”, the Vice Speaker said. Sharmazanov reminded that the President in his speech at PACE said in 2018 the domestic political issues in Armenia concerned the European lawmakers, and yes, during that time they were adopting different resolutions, there was even a danger that some sanctions would be imposed on Armenia. But today in PACE even no one questioned the irreversibility of democratic processes, human rights in Armenia, the existence of political will in fight against corruption. “This is a result of our political will, that of civil society, leadership, opposition, but first of all that of the leader of the state and the implementation of a clear political line. In Strasbourg the President mentioned several important principles, Armenia is Europe with its value system. One of the main priorities of Armenia’s domestic political agenda is the fight against corruption. Corruption is a disease and challenge to our state. At the same time corruption is not only typical to developing countries like ours, but also it’s typical to such famous organizations like PACE. In Strasbourg the President said with a regret that we have witnessed value crisis in PACE, when the caviar or the oil dollars were much more convincing than the democratic values and human rights”, Sharmazanov noted.