On October 18, President of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan received the Congressional Delegation led by the Chairman of the House Democracy Partnership (HDP) of the U.S. House of Representatives David Price, press office of the parliament of Armenia reports.
After the exchange of greetings, the sides discussed the aftermath of the aggression of the Azerbaijani armed forces in September. The President of the National Assembly of Armenia noted: “Despite the fact that in the evening of September 14 by the mediation of the United States a fragile ceasefire agreement was reached, nevertheless, after that also the Azerbaijani side regularly continues violating the ceasefire regime.” He expressed his gratitude to the U.S. authorities, including the numerous Congress members for giving targeted assessment to recent developments, as well as for the recent return of 17 prisoners of war to Armenia by the mediation of the United States. The sides touched upon the Azerbaijani armed forces that invaded the territory of Armenia and Azerbaijan-Turkey expansionist aspirations.
The American side considered unacceptable the Azerbaijani encroachments on the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia.
Alen Simonyan highly appreciated Armenia-U.S. cooperation at all levels. He highlighted the official visit of the Delegation led by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
At the meeting a reference was made to the inter-parliamentary dialogue and the parliamentary diplomacy.
According to Alen Simonyan, the membership of the National Assembly of Armenia to the Congress bi-partisan House Democracy Partnership is very important. He underlined that this visit is of utmost importance for the continuity of this format of cooperation.
The Armenian side highly assessed the work of the Congressional Armenian Caucus of the House of Representatives, including in the programs supporting Armenia, in showing humanitarian assistance to Artsakh, in trade initiatives, in the peaceful settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh problem and in the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Legislative-executive relations, issues related to the parliamentary opposition, decision-making mechanisms were discussed at the meeting.
