New president of Armenia to pay a visit to Russia soon

President of Armenia Armen Sargsyan has announced his plans to visit Moscow soon. Sargsyan sworn in on April 9.

“Of course, I am very interested in sooner visit to Moscow as President of Armenia. Historically, the presidents of Armenia pay their first visits on that post to Russia. No specific data are available so far,” he said in an interview with TASS.

Armen Sargsyan said that as president of Armenia he is committed to further enhancement of the Armenian-Russian strategic alliance, friendship of the two peoples and development of human contacts.

“On this occasion, I’d like to wish Vladimir Putin, who gained victory in recent presidential election in Russia, new greater successes in his activity and efforts to further develop economy of his country, increase the living standards of citizens and Russia’s role on the international arena,” he said.

Sargsyan considers Russia’s role in Karabakh peace process extremely important: “Negotiations have been held within the OSCE Minsk Group format and on the basis of the settlement principles and elements suggested by the co-chair-states Russia, U.S. and France for over 25 years already. Russia has the key role in the Karabakh conflict settlement as an OSCE MG co-chair-state.”

The president recalled that 23 years ago, tri-partite ceasefire in Karabakh was achieved due to Russia’s mediation efforts. “We highly appreciate these mediation efforts in finding political solution to the problem. Evidently, a political will for peace and agreement is needed to resolve the issue. Armenia does everything possible to achieve peace and expects Azerbaijan to do the same,” he said.

The president said, “all regional conflicts are settled eventually, as it is quite possible to overcome.” “There have been much more severe and dramatic conflicts in human history,” Sargsyan said.