Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a meeting with President Armen Sarkissian, during which the parties discussed issues related to Armenia’s current policy agenda and development programs.

President Armen Sarkissian - Mr. Prime Minister, I am glad for our meeting. This is not a regular office meeting: it goes in tune with the spirit of the time as it is being held in the open air.

We are facing important problems. For several months now, Armenia has joined the global campaign against the coronavirus. I am closely following the statistics, and I am pleased to state that the curve is going down. I hope it will continue to do so.

I share your view that in no case we should be encouraged, because a large part of the population has not yet encountered the virus; if they come in contact with it, the result will be the return of COVID-19. It is the second wave for some countries, while others may call it the third wave. I agree with you that we must strictly observe the anti-epidemic rules; I mean personal hygiene, social distancing and proper behavior.

Today’s economic difficulties stem from the epidemic in general. The situation is by far the same all over the world, but we should not seek consolation in it. On the contrary, the global setback indirectly affects the Armenian economy: it will have a strong impact on some sectors, including hotel services, tourism, jobs, social protection, etc. We are in dire economic straits in fact; we are facing big problems.

I wish your government every success in your anti-crisis efforts. I would like to reaffirm that as the President of the Republic, I am prepared to make a personal contribution through my connections, experience and advice.

The recent escalation in Tavush aggravated the problems. A few days ago, I was in Tavush - in the border village of Chinari, I was very much pleased to see the local population in high spirits. Everyone, both adult and teen, was self-confident, full of energy and optimism. I came back convinced that our people will continue to stand by our soldiers and our army. So, Mr. Prime Minister, I express my support to the government, to you personally, to our Ministry of Defense, to our army, I will do everything in my power to be of service.

I do believe that these difficult days should be the beginning of future achievements: today we should build a strong groundwork for our future ascent. I hope that our country will be able to defy the challenges. I wish fortitude and patience to all of us, to our people. Everyone needs to be disciplined, hardworking and highly dedicated in order to overcome all these challenges.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan - Mr. President, thank you for the meeting. Let me say that we also had an online meeting during this time; we discussed issues that were not put on record for well-known considerations.

Yes, COVID-19 is a serious problem for our country. Looking back on what happened I can say that in late April we noticed that while the restrictions were apparently complied with in public venues, they did not work behind the scenes - in the courtyards and at close quarters. We failed to meet the target, and as a result, we lost 70,000 jobs in April alone.

The tense regional situation was another setback. Notwithstanding the UN Secretary General’s appeal to observe a universal ceasefire amid the pandemic, Azerbaijan’s continued bellicose rhetoric made us realize that our country could not stand idle in the face of a possible escalation.

The government formulated the main task as follows: Health capacity needs to be developed so that no citizen is left without proper medical care. We actually solved the problem: strong capacity was built up: we resorted to extra budget spending in order to get additional equipment and supplies. As a result, we had the following: 50,000 jobs were restored in June, and in July, we had a slightly higher number of jobs than in the same period last year. It was obvious to me that if we had been guided solely by health considerations, we would have faced a social collapse.

Unfortunately, today we have a fairly high COVID-19 death toll. Yes, you are right. We are now experiencing a steady decline in the curve of incidences, but the number of daily fatalities is still above zero due to the preceding developments.

I regret that we have more than 800 deaths at this point of time. But today the opposite process is going on, we are conserving the hospitals; we say there is no guarantee that the figures will not surge again due to our individual behavior.

Today we have a chance to boast a far better situation in the fall, because we can see that many countries are forced to return to the logic of tough restrictions after officially declaring that they had overcome the epidemic.

Yes, you are right, we are facing serious economic problems, and we are trying to find case-sensitive solutions. Our main task is to save the jobs. This is the preliminary target, but it means boosting exports, production and consumption.

Of course, you are aware that we have implemented more than 20 anti-crisis measures, within the framework of which we have already invested more than 100 billion drams in various social and economic programs through the banking system and the state budget. This process will be continued for individual sectors to make sure that economic competitiveness and the jobs are saved in order to quickly recover from the economic crisis.

Now let us see what happened in Tavush. We witnessed a flagrant act of aggression by Azerbaijan against the sovereign territory of Armenia. But it is important to state that the military rhetoric that the leadership of Azerbaijan has been developing for years, creating the myth that the Azerbaijani army had superiority over the Armenian armed forces, collapsed in a flash twinkling following a local incident. To my mind, this has led to a completely new geopolitical and military-political situation in the region.

By and large, this comes to strengthen Armenia’s long-standing position, which has been adhered to by all Armenian authorities and governments, namely that the Karabakh conflict has no military solution: it can be resolved exclusively through peaceful means. This is a reality that must be reckoned with.

Armenia’s Armed Forces stand ready to defend the territorial integrity of our country, its borders, and the reforms carried out in the sphere of security and defense over the past two years in pursuit of my government’s priorities have yielded the desired result. And I am pleased to stress that no time was wasted in this respect.

Unfortunately, this year was full of hardships, serious challenges and incidents. The explosion in Beirut, the developments currently underway in Lebanon have a direct impact on Armenia, and here, of course, we have a topic to discuss.

President Armen Sarkissian – I am glad to state that our assessments are concurrent. I agree that even if we do not have new infections or deaths tomorrow, we must be very careful; in no case can we declare our country a country free of coronavirus.

Countries are not closed to themselves, we are not a closed system, should even a single person coming from abroad be infected, and this process will start again. I hope that even if there is a second wave, we will be able to overcome it, since we already have the necessary experience.

There are economic sectors that will suffer far greater losses in this process; they will need to be backed by the state and the government.

I am glad that the government is thoughtful about it and is taking steps in that direction. However, I think that these steps should continue, because it will take a long time to overcome the current situation, which has not only an economic dimension, but a social component as well. There are problems with jobs, which in turn can trigger demographic problems.

People who used to work outside Armenia for many years now are deprived of that opportunity. Many people, who had a job yesterday, the day before, do not have it today. Therefore, we must mobilize all our potential to solve these problems.

I share your view that Azerbaijan’s offensive has no human or moral explanation. At a time when the world is fighting against the common evil, Azerbaijan undertakes a military adventure. As an experienced person who follows the developments in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia and Europe, I am concerned about several factors. First of all, the moral border that they violated by going on an adventure amid the global pandemic. Second, Azerbaijan is trying to give the impression that Armenia poses threats to international infrastructure in its territory. This is complete nonsense. This infrastructure has existed for over 20 years, and Armenia has never shown any intention to destroy it.

Their propaganda seeks to present Armenia as an aggressor in order to justify their own aggression in the future. I am proud to state that our armed forces lived up to the task set before them.

In the early 1990s, when I served as ambassador to many European countries, including NATO, many diplomats and military experts told me that our efforts were doomed to failure, since we are a small country, we do not have a powerful army, while Azerbaijan has a huge army and is being backed by the neighboring country. A few years later the same people told me that Armenia has the most powerful army in the South Caucasus.

I want to remind you again, the recent events have shown that Armenia has the most powerful army in the South Caucasus, which cannot be defeated. The army is not only weapons, discipline and readiness; the Armenian army boasts a high spirit that no one has in the region. I am happy that those people’s suspicions about the Armenian army were dispelled.

My next concern is about the official statements made an Azerbaijani official that Azerbaijan may strike the Metsamor NPP. This is inadmissible by all international norms. I have been a member and chairman of the World Energy Security Commission, which considered such statements to be calls for nuclear terrorism. I think those who make such calls should understand very well that this will be a great tragedy for everyone, not only for Armenia. The international community should intervene to prevent such irresponsible statements from recurring again.

Turkey’s bellicose rhetoric is unacceptable, too. The Turks should remember that their state was behind the Armenian Genocide 105 years ago. Any such statement calls for a return to the 105-year-old history, which is inadmissible not only for our people, but for all mankind, in general.

In conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to say that in all these directions the President, the Presidency of the Republic of Armenia, my international relations and contacts are prepared to support the Armenian government on the way to handling the crisis.