RA NA Vice President Hakob Arshakyan Gives a Speech during India-Armenia Dialogue
On March 2, in Delhi the RA NA Vice President, the Head of Armenia-India Friendship Group Hakob Arshakyan within the framework of the 8th Edition of Raisina Dialogue 2023 conference gave a speech in India-Armenia Dialogue.
“ We highly appreciate the statement by the Foreign Ministry of India, underlining that Azerbaijani armed forces should withdraw from the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia and the condemnation voiced by the Indian side regarding the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against Armenia last September and the blockade of the Lachin Corridor since December.
We highly appreciate India’s continuous support towards the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
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The Azerbaijani armed forces continue to remain on sovereign Armenian territory and, in addition, to the already existing difficulties, we are currently facing the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh resulting from Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor, Azerbaijan’s policy of subjecting Nagorno-Karabakh to ethnic cleansing, continuous provocations, as well as aspirations towards the sovereign territory of Armenia. The warmongering rhetoric, maximalist ambitions and aggressive actions of Azerbaijan undermine Armenia’s efforts to establish stability and peace in the South Caucasus,” Hakob Atshakyan documented.
The RA NA Vice President noted that India is an important pillar of global and regional stability and a major power that rightly aspires for a bigger role in international affairs.
Armenia supports India’s bid for obtaining permanent membership of the UN Security Council within the ongoing reform agenda .
“Armenia values the balanced and stabilizing position of India in these times of global turmoil. India’s successful presidency in the UN Security Council is a vivid example to this end, and we are hopeful that the on-going presidencies of India in the G-20 and Shanghai Cooperation Organization will contribute to regional and global peace and stability to the same extent,” Hakob Arshakyan said.
Last year the 30 th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and India was marked. Regarding the history Hakob Arshakyan underlined that the Greek historian and politician Xenophon wrote about Armenians living in India in 430-450 B.C.
According to the NA Vice President, the symbol of the traditionally warm relations and mutual support between our peoples is considered to be also the Armenian churches and educational-cultural organizations founded in different cities of India.
“ Whilst traditionally warm relations and mutual support between our peoples have continuously been strengthening during the past 30 years, the last three years were marked by a tremendous upward trend in our relation s,” the NA Vice President noticed.
He stated the political cooperation at ongoing high level between two countries: in 1964 the President of India Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, in 1976 the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi held political visits to Armenia, as well as in 1995 and in 2003 – the visit of the first and second Presidents of the Republic of Armenia to India.
In 2021 India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar held a historic visit to Armenia, followed by the visit of Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan to India the following year
Hakob Arshakyan underscored that we have revived the mechanism of political consultations between our foreign offices and succeeded to organize cooperation in the fields of Trade, Economy, Technology, Science, Education and Culture .
The RA NA Vice President stated the positive dynamics in the sphere of economy: “We have witnessed positive dynamics in the economic field as well. I must commend that the volumes of Armenia-India trade turnover have increased essentially in recent years: in 2020 the figure was 128.5 million US dollars, whilst in 2021 it was already at 216.1 and during the months of January-November of 2022 the number has reached 315.4 million USD. However, these figures do not reflect the full potential of our bilateral trade and economic cooperation, and we yet expect a drastic increase in trade turnover volumes in the coming years.” Hakob Arshakyan noted.
National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
