Aanchal Nigam
IMAGE: @DrSJaishankar/Twitter
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday met President of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan and discussed bilateral ties. EAM Jaishankar, who was on a two-day visit to Armenia, shared images from his meeting with Simonyan on Twitter and expressed “pleasure” to meet with the latter. EAM Jaishankar said that he discussed the importance of “nurturing” the bonds between India and Armenia with the President of the National Assembly of Armenia.
Jaishankar arrived in Yerevan on Tuesday and was welcomed by the Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan. On Tuesday, he became the first External Affairs Minister of India to have visited the country. On Sunday, Jaishankar kicked off a three-nation tour including Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Armenia. Jaishankar started off his tour in Armenia by paying tribute to the 1.5 million Armenians who were killed in the first genocide of the 20th century at the hands of the Turkish government.
After paying his homage to the victims of the genocide at Yerevan's Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex, Jaishankar tweeted, “Began the day by paying homage at the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex.” Apart from Simonyan, EAM also met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Passhinyan on Wednesday and conveyed the greetings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to Jaishankar’s tweet regarding his meeting with Pashinyan, EAM said that it “brought out the many convergences and shared outlook of our two countries…We agreed to develop a broad agenda of practical cooperation that is to our mutual benefit.”
Apart from meeting Armenian officials, Jaishakar visited the Matenadaran library in Yerevan where according to him, “the Armenia-India connect so visible.” He also posted the images of the first Armenian newspaper and constitution that were published in Madras (Chennai) along with the copy of Mahabharata in Sanskrit.
Hailing “Ajanta in Armenia”, Jaishankar also witnessed the paintings of the caves by renowned Armenian Artist Sarkis Khachaturian at the National Gallery of Armenia in Yerevan. Earlier, while meeting with his Armenian counterpart, EAM stressed the need for elevating the connectivity between both nations. He tweeted saying that both officials "agreed on enhancing our trade, education and cultural exchanges."