On an official visit to Italy, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan today met with President of the Council of Ministers of Italy Giuseppe Conte.

Following the meeting, the Armenian and Italian Governments signed bilateral cooperation documents: the Agreement between the Republic of Armenia and the Italian Republic “On Facilitating the Application of the European Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters” of 20 April 1959 and the Protocol Amending the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Emergency Situations of the Republic of Armenia and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic on civil defense cooperation and emergency assistance.

Attended by the Prime Ministers of both countries, Minister of Foreign Affairs Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Italian Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Manlio Di Stefano exchanged the documents.

The two Premiers then met with media representatives and made statements on the results of the talks.

In his statement, Prime Minister Pashinyan said:
“Prime Minister Conte,
Dear media representatives,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am happy to make an official visit to Italy for the first time. I would like to thank the President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic, Giuseppe Conte, for the warm welcome shown to the Armenian delegation.

We had constructive and productive talks with Prime Minister Conte, who reaffirmed the high level of Armenian-Italian relations and our mutual willingness to promote their development.

Armenia highly appreciates the resolution passed by the Chamber of Deputies to recognize the Armenian Genocide in April this year. Italy thereby reaffirmed its commitment to universal values, contributing to the prevention of genocides and other crimes against humanity.

We devoted a significant part of our negotiations to trade and economic relations. I am pleased to note that we witnessed a tangible change for the better in this area. I stated that Italy is our second largest trading and economic partner in the European Union. It is my pleasure to note that there are all necessary prerequisites for complementing the Armenian-Italian trade and economic relations with new content.

Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union and its close cooperation with the EU provide fertile ground for attracting investment.

I briefed my counterpart on the Armenian-Italian Business Forum held today in Milan. We highly valued the work of the Armenian-Italian Intergovernmental Commission and expressed confidence that it would be possible to hold the Commission’s second meeting in Yerevan within the shortest possible deadlines.

We discussed the opportunities for tourism development. We highlighted the implementation of Rome-Yerevan and Milan-Yerevan direct flights by Ryanair from January 2020, which will greatly facilitate the revitalization of tourism and commercial relations.

We also stressed the importance of preserving each other’s cultural heritage. We want Italy to be more involved in our education system, which will help us promote awareness of Italian culture and history.

I highly appreciated Italy’s support for the development of the European Union-Armenia partnership, including the launch of visa regime liberalization negotiations.

I informed my counterpart of the current state of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, reaffirming Armenia’s willingness to continue endeavoring towards a peaceful settlement of the conflict in the OSCE Minsk Group format. In this regard, we emphasized the importance of maintaining balanced attitudes and approaches to sensitive issues.

We referred to Armenia’s peacekeeping mission under the Italian command of the United Nations peacekeeping forces in Lebanon, which is an important example of mutual respect and trust between our countries.

We exchanged views on the Syrian crisis and expressed our concern over the invasion by the Turkish armed forces into the north-eastern regions of the country.

I am confident that our fruitful meeting will give new impetus to bilateral cooperation and our agenda will be complemented by multifaceted initiatives.

I can say that thanks to today’s meeting, the fairly positive atmosphere between our to countries will become even more positive, and I think that our meeting has reinforced the optimism about the bilateral relations.

I would like to once again thank Premier Conte for the warm welcome and friendly atmosphere. Thank you.”

The Prime Minister’s official visit to the Italian Republic is over.