Lavrov's Visit To Armenia

During visit to Yerevan, Sergey Lavrov held a bilateral meeting with his Armenian counterpart Ara Aivazian, where they discussed the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh and the supply of Russian COVID-19 vaccine to Armenia. In addition, the Russian minister updated the diagnosis of Russian-EU relations, during a joint press conference.

Recently, the Russian-Armenian partnership has developed so rapidly that, as Sergei Lavrov joked, there is no need to talk about its sharp expansion.

At the talks, the foreign ministers touched on all the main topics. Intense political dialogue - in less than half a year, Vladimir Putin and Nikol Pashinyan spoke in person twice and eight times by phone. In addition, interdepartmental and inter-parliamentary projects, joint educational programs. On Friday, a memorandum of cooperation in the field of biological safety was signed. Moscow has already delivered tens of thousands of doses of Sputnik V to Yerevan, and now the issue of organizing production in Armenia is being resolved. And of course, a sore subject is Karabakh.

Minister Ayvazyan highly appreciated Russia's efforts aimed at fulfilling the agreements, including the extremely topical issue of returning prisoners.

Lavrov urged the world community not to engage in political speculations on the Karabakh issue. Journalists asked about the recent scandal with the mass expulsion of diplomats and about the hysteria that began in Europe after Russia's retaliatory measures, in particular, after a number of European officials were banned from entering our country.

Russian top diplomat recalled that it was the West that launched this chain reaction, and relations between Russia and the EU were destroyed by Brussels after the events in Ukraine and Crimea. Also, on this day, Sergey Lavrov honored the memory of the victims of the Armenian genocide at the beginning of the twentieth century and laid flowers in Yerevan Victory Park. And he spoke with the acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The Acting Prime Minister thanked the Russian side and President Putin personally for providing assistance in solving the problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic and noted the decisive role of Russia, thanks to which it was possible to stop the bloodshed in Nagorno-Karabakh.

In turn, Lavrov, on behalf of Vladimir Putin, conveyed wishes for success to Pashinyan and assured him that Russia, as before, is committed to preserving the security of its ally country.