STEPANAKERT, MAY 12, ARTSAKHPRESS: Mr. Rutte  attached importance to the official visit of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia to the Netherlands and the development of cooperation between the two countries in all spheres.

During the meeting, the interlocutors also emphasized the development and expansion of economic relations between the two countries, the implementation of relevant measures to expand business ties. They expressed confidence that there is a great potential for economic cooperation between Armenia and the Netherlands, the realization of which will contribute to the increase of trade turnover.

The parties touched upon the Armenia-EU relations, the situation around Nagorno Karabakh, the processes taking place in the international arena.

Then, the Heads of Government of the two countries issued statements.

Mark Rutte, in particular, said,

“Thank you very much. It is a great pleasure for me to welcome and receive Nikol Pashinyan and some members of his government here.

The Netherlands and Armenia are geographically several thousand kilometers apart, but in other respects the distance between our countries is small. We are the appreciator of cultural values. An exhibition opened at the Drents Museum yesterday, and I hope to visit it soon. We also have excellent diplomatic relations that have existed for 30 years. The opening of the Embassy of the Netherlands took place in Yerevan, which confirms our excellent bilateral relations.

The visit of Prime Minister Pashinyan is taking place at a very right time, because the Armenian government has very big plans after last year's elections. We have many topics to talk about, there are very big plans. Armenia has made great investments, it is following the path of democracy, although sometimes there are difficult situations and conditions. Following the velvet revolution under the leadership of Prime Minister Pashinyan, great changes have taken place, corruption and many other wrongdoings have been fought. I am greatly convinced that the reforms will be very effective, all Armenians will benefit from it. I highly appreciate Mr. Pashinyan, I highly appreciate the activities of his government, I promised him that we will support in every way.

Although there are many positive achievements, unfortunately, the catastrophic war in Ukraine saddens everyone. Of course, we talked about that today. Our position is very clear: this terrible war must end, all parties must sit at the table and start negotiations. Only this can lead to lasting peace. Unfortunately, Armenia well understands what war means, and that is why it is so important that Armenia and Azerbaijan have recently begun negotiations to reach an agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh in the near future. We emphasize its importance; we support the Minsk Group Co-Chairs. It is a very difficult dialogue after so much grief. Mr. Pashinyan made very clear about that in the parliament. I expressed my respect for that, the efforts of the Armenian government in that regard, we wholeheartedly welcome and we will continue to welcome. Of course, we have not finished our conversations yet, we will sit at the table soon, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Pashinyan and the ministers for the visit.

During this visit, we reaffirmed what unites our nations. It promises very good, positive cooperation in the future. I personally welcome all that, thank you again, I hope we will meet again."

Nikol Pashinyan particularly said,

“Honorable Mr. Prime Minister,

First of all, I would like to thank you for the warm welcome and the invitation to pay an official visit. I must state that this is the first official visit of the Armenian leader to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. And I have had several opportunities to say today that the fact that this official visit is taking place at this time, I assess it not only as the expression of our rich historical relations and well-developed trade and economic relations, but also as the support of the Netherlands, personally your, Mr. Prime Minister, to the Armenian democracy, the agenda of democratic reforms adopted by our government. This is my first visit to the Netherlands, I am very impressed with your wonderful and beautiful country. And, of course, it is an additional impetus, it encourages us to further develop relations in all spheres, to encourage the further development of human, cultural and economic ties between our countries. I must also express my gratitude to you, Mr. Prime Minister, for the positions you expressed regarding the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and for your clear support for the peace agenda adopted by the Government of the Republic of Armenia. I must say that yes, we received at last year’s early parliamentary elections, which I am pleased to say was unequivocally assessed by the international community as free, in line with democratic standards, a mandate from our people to adopt and implement the peace agenda. The agenda of our bilateral relations is very rich, we hope to move forward in all directions. We are very interested, we discussed on several occasions today, in particular, the issue of wider application of agricultural technologies in Armenia. We know that the Netherlands is the most developed country in terms of agricultural-technologies, and we are happy and thankful that both the government and the business community we met today are interested in further developments in these areas. The role of the Kingdom of the Netherlands և your government is very important in supporting democratic reforms. The role of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and your government is very important in supporting democratic reforms. Of course, our main partner in this issue is the European Union, and of course, the support of EU member states is important. I must state that in 2021 the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement entered into force, which, in fact, is the joint agenda of democratic reforms. And we are determined to fully implement that agenda, we are determined to open an era of peaceful development for our country and our region. We also discussed the processes taking place in Armenia-Turkey relations, Armenia-Azerbaijan relations. And I am happy to say that, in fact, we state that we have a common understanding of these processes, a common understanding that the peace agenda must really be implemented. But we all know that this is not possible without the support of the international community, we are glad that our agenda is understood by our international partners. Let me thank you again for this warm welcome and express confidence that as a results of the visit a new impetus will be given to the further development of our relations.

Thank you."

Nikol Pashinyan and Mark Rutte answered the questions of the journalists.

The visit of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to the Kingdom of the Netherlands has ended.