Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian’s statement at the joint press conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Dear Madam Secretary of State, Dear Hillary,

Dear Colleague,

I am glad to welcome you on your first visit to Armenia. It is a special honour that you are in Yerevan on July 4, the Independence Day of the United States on which I cordially congratulate you and all the Americans. By establishing the independent United states through the Declaration of Independence 234 years ago the Founding Fathers of your country proved that nothing can deprive peoples of their right to independence. We, Armenians, proved that as well, by restoring the independent statehood just two decades ago.

Since the first days of our independence the Americans have been with us. The relations between Armenia and the United States got continuously deepened. The high level contacts between our two countries in the recent years are noticeable both for their frequency and broad contents. President Serzh Sargsyan’s latest visit to Washington D.C. and the meeting with President Barack Obama became an important momentum in terms of deepening of our mutual understanding and developing relations.

The American-Armenian community has, indeed, a particular role in fostering the friendship between our peoples.

Armenia and the United States share their vision on many issues of international relations. We share the vision that it is necessary to exert all efforts in order to achieve an exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on the principles of international law particularly the non-use of force or threat of force, the equal rights of peoples, the self-determination of peoples and territorial integrity; we share the vision that it is necessary to create an atmosphere of tolerance in the region instead bellicose behavior; we share the vision that the Armenian-Turkish relations should be normalized without any preconditions; we share the vision of enhancing economic cooperation in the region; we share the vision of market economy and development of democratic values.

We believe that there is a great potential which should be utilized in order to develop and enlarge the Armenian-American cooperation. And we agreed on pursuing further strengthening and deepening of our friendly partnership.

During the meeting between the President of the Republic and the Secretary of State those above mentioned issues, as well as other issues concerning further fostering of our cooperation were discussed: international and regional issues of mutual interest, the fight against terrorism, the US programs of support to the development of Armenia and the possibilities of enlarging them, the boosting of economic cooperation.

Dear Madam Secretary, we do highly commend your personal contribution in qualitatively raising the Armenian-American relations to a new level. We have had several meetings with you in various formats and in different platforms, but hosting you in Yerevan is a particular pleasure to me.

I once again weclome you and the members of your delegation accompanying you! Welcome to Armenia!

Now, I am passing the floor to you with pleasure.

Please!