Wednesday, 5 October 2005
Today RA Prime Minister A. Margaryan has received the delegation headed by National Defense Minister of Greece Spilios Spiliotopoulos.
By mentioning the recent activation of relations between Armenia and Greece that rested upon the centuries-long traditions of friendship between our two countries and peoples, the parties expressed themselves for the development of economic cooperation in parallel with the on-going political and military partnership. At the same time, considering that Greece is a NATO- and EU-member country, and was abiding by a policy of European integration, they stated that the Armenian-Geek cooperation was also marked by a multilateral component along with the bilateral one. Both sides have mentioned that Armenia and Greece had common interests in the region based on shared approaches towards the existing problems and the awareness of the necessity of maintaining security and military-political equilibrium in the whole region. They acknowledged to have common views on the EU-membership of Turkey according to which the on-gong process of negotiations will help bring this country under control and make it more predictable to benefit Armenia and Greece in terms of achieving a number of targets, including the recognition of Cyprus, the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border and a number of security-related objectives. Mr. A. Margaryan emphasized the need in the worldwide recognition of the Armenian Genocide to which, along with millions of Armenians, numerous representatives of other ethnic minorities fell victim as well, including the Greeks. He mentioned that Greece was among those countries having recognized the Armenian Genocide and making relevant initiatives in the international organizations. The two sides agreed that another chief concern behind the call for Genocide recognition was the strive for the prevention of similar crimes in future to keep mankind safe from this scourge.
The Prime Minister said to be highly appreciative of the assistance provided to Armenia on the part of Greece in the matter of European integration as expressed in the form of continued backing made available in the framework of international organizations. According to him, as much valuable is the support received in the framework of NATO undertakings.
During the meeting, on either side emphasized was the need for the deepening of political and military ties between Armenia and Greece so as to bring closer the approaches had towards the solution of regional security problems. The expansion and further development of bilateral military collaboration in the technical, military training, informational and other fields were said to be able to help protect our common strategic interests more effectively.
