Ararat Mirzoyan Meets with Valentina Matviyenko in Saint Petersburg

The RA NA Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan met with the Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matviyenko in Saint Petersburg in the framework of the works of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (IPA) of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Welcoming Ararat Mirzoyan, Valentina Matviyenko highlighted the restoration of bilateral meetings, despite the new coronavirus pandemic. The Speaker of the Federal Assembly expressed satisfaction over the existing dialogue between the two parliaments and expressed confidence that the cooperation in different formats in parallel with overcoming the pandemic will more activate.

Valentina Matviyenko emphasized the importance of the adoption of the trilateral statement on stopping the military actions in Nagorno Kharabakh which is the most important pledge for ensuring the end of the ceasefire regime. She reaffirmed the viewpoint of the Russian side that the Azerbaijani side should return all prisoners of war and other detainees to homeland.

Referring to the activity of the IPA CIS Matviyenko highly assessed the work efficiency of the Armenian deputies in the organization.

Thanking for the reception, Ararat Mirzoyan, in his turn, noted that the relations of a strategic character between Armenia and Russia continues to steadily develop in different spheres. He introduced his Russian colleague the existing situation around the Artsakh conflict after signing the trilateral statement of November 9, emphasizing the importance of the issue on immediately returning the Armenian prisoners of war and other detainees kept by the Azerbaijani side homeland. The NA Speaker added that such steps of the Azerbaijani side create an unfavourable atmosphere for the works carried out in the direction of reopening the regional infrastructure.

During the discussion, the parties reached an agreement on the implementation of the IPA CIS observation mission in the forthcoming snap parliamentary elections in Armenia.

At the end of the meeting Ararat Mirzoyan awarded Valentina Matviyenko a gold medal of the National Assembly for the important contribution to the strengthening of the inter-parliamentary ties between two countries and for the release of Maral Najarian from the Azerbaijani captivity.