At his governmental residence, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hosted Russian Premier Dmitry Medvedev who has arrived in Armenia on a working visit to attend the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council’s regular meeting in Yerevan.

“Dear Dmitry Anatolyevich, I am pleased to welcome you to Yerevan, Armenia, in my residence. This is your first visit to our country following last year’s well-known events in Armenia, and this gives special importance to your visit.

It is common in Armenia to host the dearest guests at home. I am delighted for the opportunity to host you at my residence. Our relations evolved systematically during the past year. This does not mean that there were no questions whatsoever. We have come to a crucial point in our relationship, and I am confident that contrary to pessimists, we will succeed in raising our relations to a new level. I just mean that pessimists need to be turned into optimists. And we will spare no effort to this end.

Armenia is currently presiding in the Eurasian Economic Union. We are keen to develop our relations within the Eurasian Economic Union as we prioritize Armenia’s participation in the EAEU. Of course, we will do everything to make the Eurasian Economic Union and our membership more effective, and make the organization more attractive, in general.

Welcoming you once again, I wish to state that we are pleased with your visit. I am sure that we will have constructive and fruitful proceedings as we have a lot to discuss. Thank you for your visit,” Prime Minister Pashinyan said.

Dmitry Medvedev stated, in turn: “Dear Nikol Vovayevich, I would like to first of all thank you for the invitation, especially at such a wonderful moment as we have nice spring weather in Yerevan. Secondly, we had a good reason to meet – the meeting of the Heads of Government of the Eurasian Economic Union. We hold these events regularly to discuss a variety of issues, including complex ones.

Currently Armenia is the presiding country in the Eurasian Economic Union. Indeed, it is important for us to move forward in handling a number of issues on the Eurasian agenda. But on the other hand, this is a good opportunity to discuss our bilateral relations.

We have had several meetings so far, at which we discussed the current state of affairs. Another meeting was held earlier this year, when you came to Moscow as the presiding country’s prime minister. This time as well, we will go through the main agenda items, the more so that our colleagues have prepared a number of questions for discussion.

Thank you very much for inviting us to your residence for an informal talk; it is always worth a lot. This is an opportunity to get to know each other better and to talk about different aspects of bilateral cooperation in an informal atmosphere.

I am hopeful that your presidency in the Eurasian Economic Union will be perfectly successful, and our talks, as well as the negotiations of our colleagues will help promote the cooperation between our two countries. Moreover, our countries are allied nations that boast deeply-rooted ties, and I hope – a very good future. Thank you very much for the invitation.”

During the meeting, the interlocutors discussed topical issues related to the Armenian-Russian trade and economic ties and integration-oriented cooperation within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union.