During his official visit to Beijing on June 28 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan gave an interview to CGTN.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan noted: “The whole world is now trying to explore new logistical rules to strengthen connectivity between countries, and One Belt Initiative, as well as Armenia’s Crossroads of Peace Initiative, are part of this general search for new or better connectivity. As you noted, the Crossroads of Peace Initiative of the Republic of Armenia completely coincides with the vision of One Belt, One Road. Basically, the idea is to ensure better connectivity between Europe and East Asia, between Paris and Beijing, and we clearly see the goods and people traveling freely and smoothly from Paris to Beijing, from France through South Caucasus, through Armenia and then through Central Asia, through Kazakhstan, for instance, to China.
And if implemented and if operated smoothly, this better connectivity, be it “Crossroads of Peace”, be it “One Belt, One Road”, will be beneficial for all the countries and all the nations and will help the governments to ensure or to reach their main goal, the prosperity and happiness of their citizens. This autumn, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit will be held in China’s Tianjin. And as a dialogue partner of the SCO, Armenia has seen its total trade with China grow steadily year after year.
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(…) Well, Armenia is a dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the basic principles, fundamental principles of the organization are very important for Armenia. Let’s remember some of them – it’s territorial integrity, it’s inviolability of the borders, it’s non-use of force.
This is completely what Armenia builds its foreign policy these days. So the principles are very important for us. But also, in addition, we see that several other agendas are being promoted within and in frames of the organization, like you mentioned a couple of them, like AI, digital economy, green transition, climate issues.
So these topics are important for us too. Let’s remember only one fact, I think it is quite indicative. One of the main parts, I would say, the major part of the trade between Armenia and China is green technologies.
So again, in addition, when we speak a little bit larger about climate issues, biodiversity, climate issues are also very important for Armenia. Next year, we’re going to host the COP17 on biodiversity and we’re very much looking forward to this important for us event and cooperation with China in this context as well. So I’m saying this to show that our interest in cooperation or in the activities of the Republic of Armenia in the frames of this organization are important for us.
Moreover, we decided to enlarge, to increase our participation in this organization. And by the way, this was one of the topics discussed between Armenian and Chinese delegations during our discussions, our negotiations. So we expressed a clear position about our aspiration to increase our role in this organization. And hopefully this aspiration will be welcomed by the member states”.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia