36th Meeting of Inter-Parliamentary Commission on Cooperation between RA NA and RF FA Presided Over by Hakob Arshakyan and Yury Vorobyov Held in Tsaghkadzor

The 36^th Meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Commission on Cooperation between the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and the Federal Assemblyof the Russian Federation was held this time in Tsaghkadzor.

In his welcoming remarks The RA NA Vice President, the Co-Chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Commission on Armenian-RussianCooperation Hakob Arshakyan underscored that the Armenian-Russian ally cooperation is based on the two peoples' historically established friendly relations.

"Our countries are consistently developing the political dialogue and are cooperating in different spheres. The constructive parliamentary dialogue has a significant role in strengthening the bilateral relations between two countries in bilateral format, as well as on the international parliamentary platforms," the NA Vice President said.

The Parliament Deputy Speaker touched upon the regional security and the existing threats and the illegal blocking of the Lachin Corridor. Hakob Arshakyan reminded that the Lachin Corridor is the only road of life for the population of Nagorno Karabakh, and in the created situation about 120.000 Armenians residing there have been deprived of first aid goods and services, including the medicine and medical aid of vital importance.

"Such actions of official Baku are nothing but manifestation of ethnic cleansing policy of the indigenous residents of Nagorno Karabakh. The created situation is the gross violation of paragraph 6 of trilateral statement of November 9, 2020. The free movement along the corridor will be restored without delay. Today, it is more than urgent the need of increasing the pressure on Azerbaijan by the international community," the Deputy Speaker of Parliament underlined. In this context he highlighted the role of the Russian peacekeeping mission in preserving peace and stability, as well as overcoming the humanitarian crisis in Artsakh.

Hakob Arshakyan reminded those present that the UN International Court Justice (ICJ) obliged Azerbaijan to undertake all necessary measures for ensuring the unimpeded movement through Lachin Corridor. "The illegal actions of Azerbaijan promote the growth of tension and impede the establishment of peace, security and stability in the region. We stress the necessity of operating or resuming the international mechanisms, including the monitoring mechanisms to ensure the rights and security of Nagorno Karabakh Armenians," he stated.

Regarding the agenda items, the NA Vice President assured that the discussions and proposals will be an effective impetus for the solving the universal problems, and the joint work will contribute to uniting the efforts in solving numerous problems of bilateral interest.

The Deputy Speaker of the RF FA Federation Council, the Co-Chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Commission Yury Vorobyov emphasized that Armenia is the traditional strategic partner of Russia, and in the period of global changes pf international relations the reliable collaboration between the parliamentarians is more demanded. According to him, the cooperation between Armenia and Russia assists the strengthening of stability and security in South Caucasus. He also highlighted the Russian peacekeeping mission ensuring peace in the region in unblocking the Lachin Corridor.

In their welcoming remarks the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Armenia to Russia

Vagharshak Harutyunyan and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin also referred to the development of bilateral relations, the inter-parliamentary cooperation, the strategic partnership, the priorities and the steps being taken for the complex solution of the problems.

Within the agenda items the members of the Inter-Parliamentary Commissionand the representatives of the executive authorities of two countries related to the problems and achievements of humanitarian and economic cooperation, as well as the perspectives of Russian-Armenian cooperation in the context of supporting the events aimed at the spreading Russian language in Armenia, Armenian language in Russia.

The Deputy Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, the member of the Inter-Parliamentary Commission Babken Tunyan introduced the steps directed to boosting the economic cooperation, the opportunities of increasing the goods turnover volumes and the problems of the financial market. The Head of the NA Armenia Faction, the member of the Inter-Parliamentary Commission Seyran Ohanyan spoke about the humanitarian crisis created in Artsakh as a consequence of blocking the Lachin Corridor, underlined the role of the Russian peacekeeping mission in preserving peace in the region. In the security tense situation, a proposal was sounded to combine the forces of the sides in military-technical cooperation.

The steps aimed at spreading Russian language in Armenia, the educational events, the programmes being implemented in the scientific-educational sphere, the perspectives of expanding the inter-regional cooperation were presented. The member of the Inter-Parliamentary Commission Aleksey Sandikov noticed that the Russian in Armenia is the second one after the Mother tongue. He emphasized the decision of the Russian side to send 60.000 textbooks to Armenia, which can be a special step directed to promotion of the Russian language.

Aleksey Sandikov underscored that the demand of the textbooks of schools with a Russian stream in Armenia will be met with books. The problem was raised in October of the previous year during the visit of the NA President Alen Simonyan meeting with the Speaker of the Federation Council of the RF Federal Assembly Valentina Matvienko.

The rapporteurs expressed conviction that the work of the Inter-Parliamentary Commission will give new impetus to bilateral relations.

At the end of the meeting a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Tavush Marz of Armenia and Krasnoyarsk Oblast of Russia.

A decision was made to hold the 37^th meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Commissionin Irkutsk, the Russian Federation.

After the meeting Hakob Arshakyan and Yury Vorobyov summed up the work of the Commission meeting.