On December 22, Hakob Arshakyan, the RA NA Vice President, the Head of the Armenia-India Friendship Group received Kishan Dan Dewal, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India to Armenia.
The members of the Friendship Group Tsovinar Vardanyan, Taguhi Ghazaryan, Tigran Abrahamyan and Narek Babayan were also present at the meeting.
The NA Vice President mentioned that the rich historical past of the Armenian-Indian relations is the best basis for the expansion of interstate ties. In this context, Hakob Arshakyan highlighted the Ambassador’s active participation and effective work.
“During the past 29 years, since the establishment of diplomatic relations, Armenia and India succeeded in turning friendly ties with deep historical roots into warm interstate and partnership relations,” Hakob Arshakyan stressed. Within the framework of the inter-parliamentary cooperation, he particularly emphasized the role of the Friendship Group.
Speaking about the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, the NA Vice President referred to the importance of the immediate return of the persons held as captives in Azerbaijan and non-fulfillment of the provisions of the November 9 trilateral statement by that state. The NA Vice President emphasized that in this respect our country appreciates the balanced statements and the role of India in the international arena. Hakob Arshakyan stated that Armenia reaffirms its support to India on the Jammu and Kashmir issue. He expressed hope that the issue would be resolved peacefully.
According to the NA Vice President, Armenia mutually beneficially cooperates with the friendly India in different spheres. As a satisfactory fact, he stated that in 2019 compared to the same period, the volumes of the export to India increased almost 20 times, being 73,4 mln USD, and the trade turnover between the two countries increased about 2,7%.
Touching upon the cooperation in various spheres, Hakob Arshakyan singled out the activities of the Armenian-Indian Center for Excellence in ICT.
The implementation of direct aviation flights between the two countries was highlighted from the viewpoint of expanding the cooperation in the fields of tourism and business development. They have also referred to the student exchange programmes in the sphere of education, in particular it has been mentioned that more than 3000 Indian students receive education in Armenia. The importance of the North-South road corridor and its international significance was stressed. An agreement was reached to work on the review and expansion of the memorandum of the Cooperation between Armenia and India in 2005.
The Ambassador attached importance to the deepening of the Armenian-Indian relations too and mentioned that the Friendship Group will be also formed in the Indian Parliament soon. He considered the mutual visits of the Friendship Groups necessary in terms of deepening the inter-parliamentary relations. Kishan Dan Dewal highlighted the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through peaceful negotiations and within the framework of the Co-Chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group.
The members of the Friendship Group also stated, that they are ready to make efforts in order to carry out mutually beneficial programmes.
New perspective directions of the bilateral cooperation were discussed, the need of deepening the collaboration in different spheres was emphasized. They touched upon a number of other programmes of student exchange in the field of education too.
