Today, at Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex President Serzh Sargsyan held a meeting with the senior staff of the Armenian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s central apparatus and the heads of the Armenian diplomatic missions abroad, talked about the vital issues of our country’s foreign policy agenda.

“Enough time has passed since my last meeting with the leadership of the diplomatic service of the Republic Of Armenia despite the fact that you have regularly held regional meetings and I visited the MFA central apparatus 2 months ago. Besides, in recent times I have had numerous opportunities to hold meetings and talk with many of you. This gathering offers us a great chance to touch upon our foreign policy agenda, the traditional, as well as newly emerging international and regional challenges and the ways to respond them.

Unfortunately, I have to state that serious tendencies of instability can be noticed in the international arena. Tensions and uncertainties keep on increasing. It necessitates further improving the activities of our diplomatic missions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other relevant bodies, as well as reinforcing inter-ministerial collaboration. A diplomat should be able to thoroughly examine, analyze and assess the situation, forecast future developments and offer solutions stemming from national interests. We often mention that human capital is the most valuable resource. Thus, an expectant and reactive diplomat who dodges his responsibilities is an inadmissible luxury for a state like ours. We expect you to be actively engaged in all the areas in which Armenia and Armenians have direct or indirect interests,” said the President of Armenia at the meeting with the leadership of the RA diplomatic service.

In his address, Serzh Sargsyan touched upon the urgent issues of the Armenian foreign policy agenda, the works carried out by the Foreign Affairs Ministry in a number of directions and the coming activities, the implementation process of the programs having strategic importance for our country, the existing challenges and the Ministry’s steps to respond to those challenges. Serzh Sargsyan also presented the current level of Armenia’s relations with partner countries and talked about their prospects. He touched upon the resolution process of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the present situation 20 years after the ceasefire was concluded. The president stressed the importance of diplomacy in the negotiation process and the everyday persistent work of each diplomat present at the meeting.

Serzh Sargsyan talked about the joint efforts and concerted works all Armenians should implement ahead of the Armenian Genocide Centenary, taking a comprehensive and thorough approach to that issue and the need of organizing the multifarious events dedicated to the Armenian Genocide Centenary at a high level.

In his address, the president touched upon regional issues, the Armenian-Turkish relations, the process of Armenia’s membership in the Customs Union and the economic relations.

Serzh Sargsyan stressed the importance of Armenia’s assistance to the large Armenian community of Syria who are running all the dangers of the Syrian crises and suffering the worst outcomes. The president highly praised the activities of the Armenian Embassy to Syria and the consulate-general which have rendered great assistance to the Armenians in Syria throughout this time and thanked the Armenian diplomats working in that country for their brave and devoted service.

The president spoke about the active measures being taken by our country to ensure regional and international security and underscored that Armenia performs its duties in a full-fledged manner prioritizing allied relations.

Serzh Sargsyan stressed the importance of activities aimed at consolidating the collaboration between Armenia and the European Union, as well as at further reinforcing and advancing the bilateral relations with European countries.

The President of Armenia drew the attention of the RA diplomatic service leadership to the need of reinvigorating the economic component of diplomacy. The president underscored that in order to attract foreign investments in our country, it is necessary to make the Armenian economy more popular and offer a chance to take the full advantage of making an investment in Armenia. In that context, Armenia’s decision to join the Eurasian Economic Union is of great importance.

Serzh Sargsyan also touched upon the quality of consular services and stressed that despite important reforms have been made in the consular sphere in recent years targeted at facilitating the procedures of rendering consular services to citizens, there are still a lot of works to do. The president assured that Armenian citizens are the first to assess each reform and innovation, and the primary indicator of consular services is measured only by their positive grades and satisfaction. According to the president, rendering quality services requires high quality human resources and there are works being implemented in that direction as well. Serzh Sargsyan highly emphasized the role of the Diplomatic School of Armenia in recruiting high quality personnel to our diplomatic service. Concluding his speech, the president wished the leadership of the diplomatic service successes and answered their questions.