Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Before Their Meeting

Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Before Their Meeting

Source: U.S. Department of State

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, good morning, everyone.  It’s a pleasure to be with Prime Minister Pashinyan today.  Armenia is a very highly valued partner of the United States, and we applaud and appreciate its commitment to a dignified and durable peace.  Even as we discuss that and work on that, we’re also working to strengthen the relationship between our countries in a whole variety of different areas.  I look forward to discussing all of that with the prime minister today.  Prime Minister, welcome. 

PRIME MINISTER PASHINYAN:  Thank you, Mr. Secretary.  It’s a pleasure to see you here in Munich.  And we appreciate the dynamics that we heard in – by the delegations and (inaudible) the hope that we’ll be able to develop that further.  And we established, I think, a very effective partnership, and in 2019 we started strategic planning, and this year also very important that we are looking forward to a new session of our strategic partner with a quite large agenda.  And this is a really good opportunity to discuss how to make that dynamic more effective.  And of course, obviously, regional issues are very important to our agenda as well.  Unfortunately, now we have a new phase of tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan.  Essentially we had new escalation, and with the casualties – Armenian service member killed in the border – state border with Azerbaijan.  And it is also a situation that I’d like to discuss with you.  Thank you. 

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you very much.  

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