News - Nikol Pashinyan: Democracy is important value base in development of Armenia-Greece relations

Our interstate ties are developing at a great pace. And with the results of today's visit, we will give a new boost to our bilateral relations in the domains of economy, culture, education, security. Visiting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at his joint press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens Tuesday. "We have quite a long history of cooperation in the defense sector, and I am convinced that our cooperation will become more effective. I want to emphasize that the fact that the two countries attach key importance to reforms, particularly democratic reforms, does not play a secondary role in our relations. This creates a very important value base for the development of our relations—not only with Greece, but also with the EU in general. Also, I want to thank Greece for supporting the development of our relations with the EU and for its willingness to provide further support. You are aware that the EU is one of the main partners of Armenia's democratic reform agenda. In this context, our cooperation has already shown its results, and I am convinced there will be more visible results in the near future. I want to emphasize also Greece's participation in the EU civilian [monitoring] mission in Armenia, which monitors the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia; Greece's participation here is very valuable and important. Of course, we discussed also our regional situation, we had a special reference to the process of meeting the humanitarian needs of more than 100,000 Armenians displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of [Armenian] ethnic cleansing [by Azerbaijan]. I told the [Greek] prime minister about the measures that we managed to implement. I also said that we are now at the phase of making long-term plans, decisions. If our compatriots will not have a realistic opportunity to return to Nagorno-Karabakh, our policy is to do everything to ensure that they stay in Armenia. Today we discussed matters related to this situation," stated the Armenian PM.