MINSK, 9 December (BelTA) - Belarus and Armenia are great friends with shared history, Chairman of the House of Representatives Vladimir Andreichenko said during a meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Armenia to Belarus Razmik Khumaryan, BelTA has learned.
"Our countries are great friends, with shared history and many interpersonal ties. It is important that in this difficult time we preserve them and build on them. We see how the collective West, the United States of America, actively interferes in the internal affairs of other states, imposes its policy, sanctions and dictate on others. It is important that we respond to these actions. I believe that, first of all, we should cooperate more actively in our integration associations such as the CSI, CSTO, EAEU. Of course, bilateral relations are also important," Vladimir Andreichenko said.
According to him, Belarus and Armenia have good prospects in trade and economic cooperation. "Our trade in 2020 totaled $82 million. This year it has expanded by about 5%. But the potential is much larger, which was noted at a meeting of the intergovernmental commission in November. I am talking about the setting up of joint ventures, boosting cooperation in agriculture and also humanitarian and interregional ties," the speaker said.
Vladimir Andreichenko urged the parliaments of Belarus and Armenia to work more actively in this direction. "To this end, an inter-parliamentary commission on cooperation was established in 2005. This is a special level of interaction between parliaments. We attach great importance to the work of the commission. We have something to discuss, in particular our interaction in international organizations. We count on the support of Armenian MPs, especially when politicized decisions are made against Belarus in PACE, OSCE and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. We will reciprocate in a similar vein," the Chairman of the House of Representatives stated.
The ambassador, in turn, noted that he is not a new person in Belarus and that this is his third tenure. "I've been falling in love with Belarus. It has already become part of my biography and my family. My son started school here. My daughter went to preschool here and then completed the master's program in the Maxim Tank Belarusian State Pedagogical University. We hold these memories dear. Indeed, we are allies in almost all integration associations. We cooperate and traditionally support each other in the international arena," Ambassador Razmik Khumaryan emphasized.
