Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister, officially visits the European Parliament, after the majority of ethnic Armenians had to flee the Nagorno-Karabakh region following the Azerbaijani military attack. Address by Nikol PASHINYAN. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

statement

Strasbourg

plenary session

EU - Armenia (T)

Formal sitting: address by Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'Dear guests. It's a great honour for me to speak from this high podium and I'm grateful for this opportunity. Our government and the people of the Republic of Armenia know the European Parliament as an entity which has been vocal at all times of challenges faced by the Republic of Armenia and the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, and has been vocal in the language of the truth.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister I thank all of you for this, among other things because there is power in the truth, and that power you generated each time has benefited us. The common narrative these days is that democratic Armenia is experiencing dire challenges and it is the truth. Another truth is that Armenia's democracy is experiencing dire challenges.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister The greatest truth, nonetheless, is that democracy in Armenia is experiencing dire challenges and not just Armenia's democracy, but democracy overall, because various events unfolding in Armenia and around the world are raising the following question Is democracy capable of providing peace, security, solidarity, prosperity and happiness?

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister But I have not come here to ask questions. I have come here to answer, and my answer is yes, unequivocally. Many say that Armenia today is suffering because of democracy. But I must underline my belief with the largely inevitable challenges faced by Armenia in recent years. The Republic of Armenia would have simply become paralysed, lost her independence and sovereignty, had it not been democratic.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister This is evidenced by the events of 2020 and 2021. After the signing of the trilateral ceasefire statement at the end of the 44 day war, when Armenia's state institutions were targeted by attacks of extremist groups. When the public was divided and inflamed, democratically formed institutions stood strong in their positions of defending statehood whilst not breaching any principles of democracy. The freedom of expression and freedom of assembly were not restricted in Armenia. In that difficult situation there were no cases of disproportionate use of force and the rule of law was not undermined.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister And even though we continue to enjoy majority in the Parliament in order to overcome the social psychological crisis that was caused by the aftermath of the war, the ruling power, the civil contract party decided to call a snap parliamentary election for that purpose. I stepped down from my position of the Prime Minister and then in accordance with the legal procedure, the Parliament and the Government were dissolved.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister Two days after the entry into force of the dissolution of the Parliament on 12th May 2021, the Azerbaijani troops violated the border with Armenia at a border stretch of about 100 kilometres. They invaded Armenia's sovereign territory at depths of up to four kilometres. In this situation, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, considered to be Armenia's security system, and countries that had security obligations bilaterally towards Armenia did nothing to help us. They left us all alone.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister The purpose of this provocation ahead of the upcoming parliamentary election was to cause that election to fail and to paralyse Armenian statehood, or as a minimum, to install a puppet government. But in this environment, Armenia's people were able to stand strong for defending Armenia's independence, sovereignty and democracy. And we held a parliamentary election that was internationally recognised as free, democratic, transparent and competitive.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'For the first time in the history of the Republic of Armenia, elections became a means for overcoming a domestic crisis and not vice versa. This was the difference. The main difference between the Armenia that existed before the 2018 non-violent velvet Revolution of the people and the one that came after the revolution.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister Before the revolution, the elections would normally trigger internal crises due to the lack of public trust in the outcome. After the revolution, elections have helped to prevent or overcome crisis because citizens now have not only a theoretical but also a practical opportunity to carry out decisions and to have these decisions respected.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'After the 2018 non-violent Velvet Revolution of the people, no election in Armenia at any level or any election results have not been rigged. Six years ago, people would have laughed at references to their right to form a government through elections, and now they would not understand what falsification or rigging of election results could mean. This is what has changed in Armenia in the last five years.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister But democracy in Armenia has continued to suffer from heavy blows which operate on an almost exactly repeatable formula. External aggression, followed by the inactivity of Armenia's security allies, followed by attempts to capitalise on the war or the humanitarian situation or the external security threats for overthrowing Armenia's democracy and sovereignty, or attempts which are manifested in the form of incitement of domestic instability via hybrid technologies steered by external actors.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister Since 2020, we have had several of these situations, the largest of which was Azerbaijan's wholesale attack on Armenia on 13th December 2020 to which resulted in the occupation of Armenia's sovereign territories. The latest and most tragic of such events unfolded quite recently when Azerbaijan.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'In furtherance of its years long policy of ethnic cleansing, unleashed a wholesale attack on Nagorno-Karabakh when 100,000 Armenians were fleeing from Nagorno-Karabakh to the Republic of Armenia. Our security allies were not only not helping us, but were publicly a pealing for a change of power and overthrowing of the democratic government in Armenia.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'But the people of the Republic of Armenia came together for our own independence, sovereignty and democracy. And yet another plot conspired against our state, failed. The government and the people of the Republic of Armenia came together for hosting and providing shelter to over 100,000 Armenians that were victimised by the ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. We have done this honourably to the extent that our international partners confess that they have never seen a situation in which a country would receive 100,000 refugees and would be able to accommodate all of them without setting up refugee camps or tent towns.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister We have been able to do this thanks to Armenia's people and democracy. We were able to do this thanks to Armenia's people and democracy, the people, because at times they would not even wait for the government to do anything. They would provide essential supplies to the forcibly displaced and they would even provide temporary shelter. Many of them received these people in their homes.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister Thanks to democracy, because after the 2018 revolution, all obstacles to doing business freely and all artificial monopolies have been eliminated in Armenia. Government transparency and accountability have improved. There has been an uncompromising, principled and institutional efforts against corruption. The rule of law has been achieved. And with all of this, in spite of the tragedies and the threats, Armenia continues to enjoy strong economic growth.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'Since 2018, my country's fiscal revenues have grown by about 70%. With decisions that have already been taken, we will be allocating around $100 million in support to those displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh. And we do need international support, including in the form of budget support. Needless to say, we have created a mechanism for supporting the forcibly displaced. Under this mechanism, the resources allocated to them are transferred in non-cash form. Thus, the distribution of resources is transparent, verifiable and traceable, and the system will continue to operate in this manner.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'We are grateful to our international partners, to the EU and to the Member States for having already made allocations or having continued to make allocations for coping with the humanitarian crisis caused by the forced displacement of the Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'Esteeemed President of the European Parliament, honourable Members of the Parliament, Dear guests. It is unfortunate, extremely unfortunate, that in spite of hundreds of reports, the orders of the International Court of Justice, resolutions of the European Parliament's resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and resolutions of National Parliaments, as well as the appeals of the Executive governments. We, the international community, have been unable to prevent the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'The Armenian government and the European Parliament have, many times, alerted to the threat of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenian government repeatedly invited the UN, the OSCE and the EU to send a fact finding mission to the blockaded Latvian corridor or to Nagorno-Karabakh. However, none of them adopted such decisions. We initiated three U.N. Security Council discussions on this topic, but the discussions produced no practical results. And now Nagorno-Karabakh has been cleansed of Armenians

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'With the inactivity of the peacekeeping mission of the Russian Federation, over 100,000 Armenians left their homes in their native land of Nagorno-Karabakh. In a matter of one week. Another 20,000 had been forced out of Nagorno-Karabakh immediately after the 44 day war in 2020. Many others had been unable to return to Nagorno-Karabakh because of the illegal blockade of the launching corridor that had started in December 2022.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'And now some are pretending not to understand why the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh left their homes en masse. Posing such a question is cynicism per se, because the answer is glaringly obvious. Azerbaijan had clearly and unequivocally demonstrated its decision to render life for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh impossible. From December 2022, during the illegal blockade of the large in corridor, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh were deprived of natural gas, electricity, fuel, food, baby formula, medication, hygiene supplies, as well as other essential supplies.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister Civilians performing agriculture works were targeted by Azerbaijan's armed forces from December 2022. We made dozens of alerts about Azerbaijan's plan to push people into Hungary to increase the military propaganda and psychological pressure, and then to open the lodging corridor, forcing thus all Armenians to leave.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'We described this scenario in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August of 2023. We described it loudly and publicly, and I do not understand the surprise the faces of certain international officials about the cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh, of Armenians in September. Yes, I would like to thank the European Parliament for calling what happened in Nagorno-Karabakh by its name.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister This is important for the future protection of the rights of people deprived of their homeland. Esteemed President, honourable members of the Parliament to attend these, in spite of all the wars and difficulties and crises, I have come to the European Parliament with the following key message: our region, the South Caucasus, is in need of peace, in need of a condition where all the countries of the region live with open borders tied by active economic, political and cultural bonds with experience and tradition of resolving all differences by diplomatic means and by dialogue.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister I want to highlight our vision of peace is not in any way opposed to the interests of our region because our country can be peaceful if the region is in peace and supporting the construction of peace is my core political undertaking.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister Assuming such an undertaking is not easy, given the longstanding conflict with Azerbaijan and the fact that there have been numerous casualties, missing persons, prisoners suffering and despair. But is peace possible? And if yes, how?

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister In early October, ahead of the third European Political Community Summit in Granada, we had a major opportunity to achieve a breakthrough in the peace process. But unfortunately, the president of Azerbaijan refused to attend the summit and to adopt a joint statements with the EU Council President, the president of France, the Chancellor of Germany, and myself, a statement that would contain the principles of achieving peace and normalising relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister However, those principles and contents were not elaborated in Granada but as a result of the quadrilateral meeting in Prague on October 6th, 2022. They were elaborated back then and that meeting in Prague was attended by the French President, the EU Council President, the President of Azerbaijan and myself. These principles were fleshed out in 2023 during meetings between the EU Council President, the President of Azerbaijan and myself in Brussels, and there have been public statements about these principles.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister The first one, the first principle, is contained in the Coronado Quadrilateral statement in the following quote, the French President, the EU Council president, the German Chancellor and myself remain committed to all efforts to direct it towards the normalisation of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, based on mutual recognition of sovereignty, inviolability of borders and territorial integrity of Armenia, 29,800 square kilometres, and of Azerbaijan. 86,600 square kilometres.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'As mentioned in President Michel's statements of 14 May and 15 July 20, 23. It was called for the strict adherence to the principle of non-use of force and threats of use of force and, as a results of the trilateral meeting held in Brussels on 14 May this year, between the EU Council President, the President of Azerbaijan and myself, EU Council President Charles Michel published a statement that reads as follows: the leaders, meaning the president of Azerbaijan and myself, confirmed their unequivocal commitment to the 1991 Almaty Declaration and the respective territorial integrity of Armenia, 29,800 square kilometres and Azerbaijan 86,600 square kilometres.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister As a result of the July 15 meeting in Brussels between the EU Council President, the President of Azerbaijan and myself. Another statement was published by Council President Michel, which reads as follows: the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders once again fully reconfirmed their respect for the other countries territorial integrity and sovereign, and based on the understanding that Armenia's territory covers 29,800 square kilometres and Azerbaijan's territory 86,600 square kilometres.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister Ladies and gentlemen, what you need to know, in addition about this, is the following: after these understandings, I made several public statements reconfirming that the Republic of Armenia recognises Azerbaijan's 86,600 square kilometre territorial integrity. But the Azerbaijani president has not reciprocated. He recently stated that he recognised Armenia's territorial integrity, but he did not specify that 29,800, which has caused some analysts to concern that he is intentionally leaving ambiguities for making territorial claims on Armenia.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister The understanding to recognise territorial integrity with specific numbers was achieved for that very purpose, so that neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan would afford any ambiguity in recognising each other's territorial integrity by saying, for instance, that a part of the of a of the country's territory does not really belong to that country.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister The next principle of normalising relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan is contained in the Granada Statement in the following manner: they stressed the urgent need to work towards border delimitation based on the most recent USSR general staff maps that have been provided to the sides, which should also be a basis for distancing of forces and for finalising the peace treaty and addressing all humanitarian issues.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister A  result of the July 15 meeting held in Brussels with the EU Council President, the President of Azerbaijan and myself, Council President Charles Michel made the following statement. Both leaders reconfirmed their unequivocal commitments to the 1991 Almaty Declaration as a political framework for the delimitation and of quote, as a result of the 2022 October six quadrilateral meeting in Prague, the same principle was defined as follows quote.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister Armenia and Azerbaijan confirmed their commitment to the charter of the UN and to the 1991 Almaty Declaration, through which both recognise each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty. They confirmed it would be a basis for the work of the border delimitation commissions and of quote, what you need to know additionally about this principle is the following: the Almaty Declaration was signed by the 12 republics of the Soviet Union on December 21, 1991.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'In this context, there were two important clauses in that declaration. Firstly, the Soviet Union shall cease to exist. And, secondly, the republics shall recognise each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty. The inviolability of the existing administrative borders and therefore the administrative borders between the ex-Soviet republics would turn into a state borders.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister Azerbaijan has claimed that there is no border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but this contradicts the Almaty declaration and the aforementioned understandings. Azerbaijan also maintains ambiguity in accepting that the most recent Soviet Union maps as a basis for delimitation. Some experts have assumed, based on this, that Azerbaijan is creating a foundation for territorial claims and a new military aggression against Armenia.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister Ladies and gentlemen, the next principle for normalising relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and for peace is contained in the Granada statement as follows: they called for the opening of regional connectivity links based on full respect of the country's sovereignty and jurisdiction, as well as on the principles of equality and reciprocity.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister In its statements. On July 15, after the meeting held in Brussels between the EU Council President, the President of Azerbaijan and myself, Council President Charles Michel, stated the following quote: we, meaning EU council presidents and The President of Azerbaijan and myself discussed modalities of future transport arrangements which will respect the principles of sovereignty, jurisdiction and reciprocity.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'What you should know about this principle, in addition, is the following. Azerbaijan has continued to claim that Armenia must provide a corridor to Azerbaijan via Armenia's own territory. In common international talk, we understand a corridor as a simple interstate road. But in our region there is a specificity in the 2020 November Nine Trilateral Statement the word corridor is used only in reference to the Lachim Corridor, which was supposed to ensure a link between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister The specificity is that under the 2020 November Nine statement, Lachim corridor would not just a road, it would be a five kilometre wide territorial layer that would lie outside of Azerbaijan's control and would be under the control of the peacekeepers. So in this context, the word corridor has that connotation of an extraterritorial layer.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister Armenia has never, under any circumstances, agreed to or promised to accept any restriction of its sovereignty or jurisdiction. Urmia has not made such a promise so what does the aforementioned principle mean? It simply means that Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on the basis of their sovereignty and jurisdiction, and without any reference to corridors to open their roads for each other.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister At the checkpoints of these roads, there would be border control and other control services under the jurisdiction of the respective countries and based on their sovereignty and legislation. This would be done according to the principle of reciprocity and equality. We are ready for such solutions as soon as possible.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister We are ready to restore the Memory railway linking via the south of Armenia, not just Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also Armenia's southern regions with the northwestern regions, Azerbaijan's Southwestern regions, with the Autonomous Republic of Nature of Armenia, subsequently with Turkey, Azerbaijan, with Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the East with the West from the Caspian to the Mediterranean, the North to the South, from the Gulf to the Black Sea in Armenia. We call this project the Armenian Crossroads.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister But I think the time has come for further regionalisation and rebranding this project. And here in this important House, the time has come for calling it the crossroads of peace, a name that would be just as important and acceptable for us. Along the same logic, we are ready for the roads to be opened. The Republic of Armenia is committed to securing the movement of goods, vehicles, people, pipelines and electricity lines because in a crossroads of peace in place, also the passage of pipelines and electricity lines.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister These solutions are very important for the Republic of Armenia as well, because for 30 years now our country has been in a blockade by Azerbaijan and Turkey. As you can see, there is no basis for accusing Armenia of obstructing the opening of regional transport communications. Some analysis indicates that official Baku is misrepresenting the international narrative in order to incite a new war in the region, or for occupying further territories of Armenia or keeping Armenia in blockade. This cannot be allowed.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister As you saw, all of the aforementioned principles were fleshed out and agreed upon with the participation of the EU Council President and the President of Azerbaijan. We are ready to implement these understandings as well as far as transport communications are concerned, in accordance with the aforementioned principle, including the principle of reciprocity.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'We are ready to simplify the procedures. We are ready to ensure the safe passage of Azerbaijanis and Azerbaijani goods via our territory. Hoping for reciprocity. We're ready for the myriad withdrawal of the troops from the 1991 border line, which would mean that Azerbaijan would not have to arm forces in the territory of Armenia and vice versa. We're also ready on the basis of reciprocity to address the question of the so-called enclaves,

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister As declared in my interview with Armenia as public television on October ten. And finally, we're ready by the end of this year to sign an agreement on peace and normalisation of relations with us Azerbaijan. Clearly, the fact that Azerbaijan refused to take part in the Granada meeting, which had actually been agreed upon in Brussels on July 15 and that agreement too was contained in President Michel's statements made after the meeting. Now that failure to come to the meeting did not make the process any easier.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister But in the course of this year, as the President of the Parliament has said, we've agreed that we will have a meeting in Brussels during this month. And if the aforementioned principles are officially reconfirmed, then the signing of a peace and normalisation agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan will become highly realistic by the end of this year.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister 'We are also ready to have an overall exchange of prisoners of war detainees and arrested persons. We're ready to closely cooperate for determining the fate of the missing persons. At the moment, 1016 citizens of Armenia are considered to be missing. We stand ready to cooperate for de-mining. I wish to emphasise that back in 2021, Armenia received from Nagorno-Karabakh and passed to us there by Azerbaijan all of the maps of minefields that were available to the Armenian side.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister We did so without preconditions as an expression of goodwill. But unfortunately, Azerbaijan did not perceive it as a step aimed at peace, but rather as a trigger for escalating its aggressive rhetoric against Armenia. In spite of this, we must resolutely move towards peace. Doing so requires political will.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister I and the government and the parliamentary majority of Armenia have this political will. On the other hand, the international community and the European Union and countries of our region need to support us to the best of their ability to use this opportunity to make it realistic for us, Armenia and Azerbaijan. This is where I seek your continued support and attention, especially for the realisation of the principle that I discussed.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister As I said already, these principles were agreed upon with the participation of Council President Charles Michel and the President of Azerbaijan. Esteemed Presidents, Honourable Members of the Parliament. Dear Attendees. Turning to the EU Armenia relationship, in recent years, the EU has been a key partner supporting the fundamental reforms of the Armenian government.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister The Armenia EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement is crucial. It is one of the pillars of our reform agenda, which is now in the phase of active implementation from February. Armenia has had a long term civilian mission of the European Union, which monitors the security situation alongside Armenia's state border with Azerbaijan.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister This is an important milestone. For the first time, the European Union has become engaged in Armenia's security agenda. The foundation for this was laid during the trilateral meeting in Prague on October six, 2022 for reforms to strengthen democracy. We receive EU supports in our police reform. This month, in a matter of two weeks in fact, we will finalise the formation of an all new patrol police in Armenia weeks backed to continue cooperating for the reforms of the police, the rescue service, the judiciary for having an independent judiciary, education and public administration.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister Our agenda with the EU is indeed very extensive. It's important to reinvigorate the projects implemented under the Economic and Investment Plan of the EU. Important objectives include sustainable economic development, modernisation of infrastructure, digitalisation and technological development, and strengthening the resilience of Armenia's southern regions.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister The latter is important not only for the country's development, but also for building a durable peace in the region. Projects worth more than €400 million have already launched under this programme. About €270 million are for facilitating assembly access to finance. About €34 million are for technological development and other €43 million are for strengthening the resilience of Syunik region and about €62 million for the green development of the city of Yerevan. And this is not all.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister On October five in Coronado, two very important documents for the EU Armenia relationship were adopted. One is the quadrilateral statement between President Michel, President Macron, Chancellor Schulz and myself, and the other one is the bilateral statement between President von der Leyen and myself. Both statements express support to strengthening the EU Armenia relationship on all levels.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister In view of the needs of the Republic of Armenia, we have undertaken to further strengthen the EU Armenia relationship. In the long run, the European Union and Armenia are committed to strengthening economic ties by unleashing the full potential of the Armenia EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement. Based on all of this. Ladies and gentlemen, I can announce clearly and with confidence: Armenia is ready to be closer to the European Union as far as the European Union would consider possible.

SOUNDBITE (Armenian), Nikol PASHINYAN, Armenian Prime Minister Our joint statements with President von der Leyen reads: in these difficult times, the EU and Armenia stand shoulder to shoulder. Let us continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with a commitment to make these times better. As I said, I am convinced that democracy can provide peace, security, solidarity, prosperity and happiness. Let us prove this together. Long live democracy. Thank you.