On October 27 Edward Nalbandian started his visit to the United Kingdom.
Edward Nalbandian and Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom David Miliband discussed a broad range of bilateral, regional and international issues.
Turning to bilateral relations, Minister Nalabndian said Armenia attaches great importance to the development of comprehensive and all-embracing relations with Great Britain – one of the leading countries of Europe, and his visit is an evidence of Armenia’s determination.
Minister Nalbandian said the Armenian-British political dialogue and the trade-economic relations have a great potential for development, and the activation of the Armenian-British relations in the above-mentioned sphere is one of the primary issues of cooperation between the two countries.
Minister Nalbandian and Foreign Secretary Miliband discussed in detail the settlement of regional conflicts. In this context Minister Nalbandian presented Armenia’s stance on the resolution of the Artsakh issue. He expressed hope that the parties can reach the resolution of the issue in case there is corresponding political will.
At the request of David Miliband, Edward Nalbandian presented the opportunities of normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations, underlining that the aim of the process is their full normalization and Armenia is resolute to continue the steps in this direction. The British Foreign Secretary highly assessed Armenia’s steps targeted at the improvement of relations with Turkey.
Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and British Minister of State for Europe Caroline Flint discussed the Armenia-European Union cooperation, particularly the process of implementation of the Action Plan of the European Neighborhood Policy, the bilateral cooperation between Armenia and Great Britain within the framework of the ENP. Ministers Nalbandian and Flint turned to regional issues, especially the perspectives of normalization of relations, as well as the activation of bilateral relations.
Minister Nalbandian visited the House of Lords, where he met with members of the Armenian-British Friendship Group. The meeting was attended by representatives of the main political parties of the United Kingdom – the Laborites, the Conservatives and the Liberals, as well as other parties.
On the same day, Minister Nalbandian visited Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), where he made a speech on “Regional Security in the Caucasus – an Armenian Perspective”. Political analysts, representatives of research centres and universities, diplomats accredited to London, representatives of UK official bodies, journalists attended the meeting. After the speech Edward Nalbandian answered to the number of questions on Armenia’s foreign policy.
Afterwards Armenian Foreign Minister left for the Headquarter of BBC Radio – World Service and thus became the first high-ranking Armenian official who visited BBC Headquarters. Edward Nalbandian gave an interview to the correspondents of BBC World Service.
Edward Nalbandian’s next meeting was with the representatives of UK’s Armenian community in Great Britain. In the course of the meeting which lasted more that two hours Edward Nalbandian presented the main directions and priorities of Armenian foreign policy, perspectives of the settlement of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) issue, the steps undertaken by the Government for the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. Speaking on Armenia-Diaspora relations Minister Nalbandian said to the representatives of British Armenian community that Armenian authorities seek to cooperate with the Diaspora to a definitely new level and establishment of the Ministry of Diaspora is one of the steps towards that goal. Edward Nalbandian answered a lot of questions of British Armenian Community’s concern.
The last meeting of Armenian Foreign Minister was with Sir Brian Fall, Special Representative of the United Kingdom for the South Caucasus. Minister Nalbandian and Ambassador Fall had a detailed discussion on the steps aimed at development of bilateral relation in different areas, recent regional developments and perspectives of settlement of the conflicts.
On October 28 Minister Nalbandian concluded his visit to UK and returned to Yerevan.