Statement by Foreign Minister of Armenia at the Joint Press Conference with the Foreign Minister of Lithuania

Good afternoon, dear colleagues,

Thank you for finding the time amid the election campaign bustle. Today is an important occasion for us: I have the honor of welcoming the Foreign Minister of Lithuania, my esteemed colleague and good friend Kęstutis Budrys along with his delegation to Armenia.

Mr. Minister, we often have opportunities to engage on various international platforms, but bilateral visits and meetings in our capitals, with the possibility of holding substantive and comprehensive discussions, naturally provide a special opportunity to further advance our political dialogue and cooperation.

I should note, dear colleagues, that this visit is taking place at a highly symbolic moment, as we mark the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries. It is precisely at this milestone, building upon all the progress and cooperation achieved thus far, that we have been able to sign a document elevating the level of our relations: from this moment onward, Armenia and Lithuania are strategic partners. This framework will enable us to deepen our political dialogue and cooperation even further, while also allowing us to approach sectoral interaction in a more comprehensive manner.

Today, we had the opportunity to discuss the prospects for our economic cooperation, particularly in the fields of information technologies, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity - areas in which Lithuania possesses extensive experience, and where we, too, have developed certain expertise and knowledge, enabling us to be valuable partners to one another.

Of course, our friendship, which in recent years has been especially evident in the bilateral domain, is also reflected in Armenia-European Union relations and across international platforms. We are grateful to our Lithuanian partners for their strong support in deepening Armenia-European Union relations.

The Armenia-Nordic-Baltic cooperation format is also of great importance and interest to us, and here as well we enjoy Lithuania's full support.

One of the best and most recent manifestations of our overall cooperation was the fact that we recently hosted the 8th European Political Community Summit in Yerevan, which was immediately followed by the first-ever Armenia-European Union Summit.

It is important to emphasize that our relations are founded first of all on shared values - sovereignty, democracy, and human rights. This is, of course, encouraging news, but there is also the parallel reality that these values I have just mentioned are increasingly being targeted by various actors and are facing hybrid threats in today's world. I would like to stress that this, too, is an area in which Lithuania and Armenia closely cooperate in order to address these challenges.

Dear colleagues, of course, we also discussed regional issues in the South Caucasus, as well as the broader geopolitical situation. I presented to my colleague the established peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the unblocking of regional infrastructure, and introduced the TRIPP project together with the steps being undertaken within its framework. Here as well, up to this day, and I am confident in the future too, we have seen and will continue to see Lithuania's welcoming attitude and readiness to support.

This was a very brief summary of what we discussed and what remains on our agenda. Once again, thank you very much, and I was truly delighted to welcome you to Armenia, dear friend.