Wednesday, 16 May 2007
RA Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan received newly appointed Italian Ambassador to Armenia Massimo Lavezzo Cassinelli.
Having congratulated Mr. Casinelli on the start-up of his diplomatic mission in our country, the Prime Minister expressed hope that like outgoing ambassador Marco Clemente, the new ambassador, too, would endeavor towards the furtherance of the Armenian-Italian relationship in most various spheres.
Ambassador Casinelli assured in turn that he would do his best to strengthen the bilateral cooperation in the political and economic fields, as well as in any prospective area of mutual interest to the two countries. He emphasized the need of developing the cooperation both in the framework the European Neighborhood Policy and on the bilateral level.
The Italian ambassador took the opportunity to congratulate the Prime Minister on the successful completion of parliamentary elections last week which met the international standards and Armenia's international commitments, as a whole. He said that he had heard favorable opinions of the elections both from the Italian MPs and from the observers representing different countries of Europe. Mr. Casinelli likewise felicitated Serzh Sargsyan on the impressive victory of the Republican Party of Armenia.
Against the background of developing cooperation, RA Prime Minister and the Ambassador of Italy stated the importance of holding this autumn a number of cultural events in the framework Armenia's Days in Italy as preceded by the Days of Armenian-Italian Friendship held in October, 2005. The Prime Minister noted that actions like these did more than merely promoting the cultural ties and that they went a long way towards the strengthening of bilateral cooperation in a variety of spheres. Ambassador Casinelli informed that a business forum involving the representatives of Armenian business circles was due to be held this autumn in Italy, which was supposed to propel the development of economic exchanges between the two countries. According to the Ambassador, recent years' high appreciation of Armenia's economic record on the part of authoritative international organizations testified to the effectiveness of the efforts made by the Armenian government. He wished the GoA every success in its future endeavors and expressed hope that the Armenian-Italian economic cooperation would continue developing dynamically.
The parties also emphasized the importance of expanding the cooperation on the basis of the Italian know-how in a number of areas, such as tourism, small and medium-size enterprise and the work done jointly in the frame of the Poverty Reduction Strategic Program.
At the close of the meeting, Serzh Sargsyan thanked the Ambassador for his willingness of cooperation and the congratulations over the successful completion of the parliamentary elections as expressed in the hope that every next election in Armenia would be a step forward on the way democracy. Nobody can assert that his country's electoral system is so perfect that there is no need of further improvements", - the Prime Minister said adding that Armenia would continue making steps towards the improvement of its electoral system.
