RA NA President Ararat Mirzoyan Meets with Delegation Led by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania

The President of the RA National Assembly Ararat Mirzoyan received the delegation led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis.

Welcoming the Minister, Ararat Mirzoyan mentioned that Lithuania was the first country that recognized the independence of Armenia, and in 2005 recognized the Armenian Genocide. He highly assessed the visit of the Foreign Minister of Lithuania in the days of the Armenian Genocide remembrance events, which take place amid coronavirus pandemic. According to the NA President, this fact testifies to the high level of the relations existing between the two countries. The Speaker of the Parliament touched upon the Turkish-Azerbaijani aggression unleashed against Artsakh and the non-fulfillment of the obligations of the tripartite statement on the ceasefire. Mirzoyan has noted that Azerbaijan violates paragraph 8 of the tripartite statement: refuses to return prisoners of war and other detained persons bringing artificial criminal charges against them.

The NA President has added that the Nagorno Karabakh problem is not solved, unless the Artsakh Armenians' right to self-determination has not been realized, and it is necessary to continue the negotiations in the frameworks of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship in this direction.

Ararat Mirzoyan highly assessed the position of adherent to principle of a group of Lithuanian MPs, who called on Azerbaijan to escalate the exchange of the dead, prisoners of war and hostages and their return process.

Expressing his gratitude to the NA President for the reception, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania in his turn has noted that this year marks the 30^th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the two countries. He has noted that despite hard situation created as a result of pandemic and war, Armenia remains faithful to the values of democracy and on behalf of Lithuania has expressed readiness to support the agenda of the reforms.

Touching upon the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, he has informed that Azerbaijan is obliged to return Armenian prisoners of war and other detained persons, as well as to free from the elimination of the Armenian cultural heritage, if it wishes to have constructive dialogue.

During the meeting the sides discussed the agenda of the profile reforms of Armenia and issues on the organization of the forthcoming snap parliamentary elections in June and on participation of the international observation missions.