13:00,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian held a meeting today with Head of the European Union’s Delegation in Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin, the Presidential Office reports.
Issues relating to the opportunities of deepening and expanding the cooperation with the European Union in various areas, as well as the regional security and stability were discussed during the meeting.
14:46,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. By starting dialogue with Turkey, Armenia doesn’t abandon its key state interests, and the establishment of relations cannot be accompanied by any preconditions, the head of the parliamentary committee on foreign relations Eduard Aghajanyan told reporters.
“In the context of relations with Turkey, Armenia’s stance has always been that we are ready to start the relations without any preconditions both from the Armenian side and the opposite,” he said.
Aghajanyan assures that the Armenian side is not abandoning anything, and this process is about the relations between Armenia and Turkey, about starting diplomatic relations. “This doesn’t anyhow mean that Armenia is abandoning its key state interests. On the contrary, we are convinced that establishing diplomatic relations with Turkey stems from Armenian state interests for various reasons,” the MP said.
He said that both Armenia and Turkey will benefit from this.
“Armenia has neighbors whom it can’t avoid geographically, and our neighbors can’t avoid our presence in this region. Therefore, there simply is no alternative to establishing good-neighborly relations with neighboring states. Indeed, this process isn’t easy given the regional processes of the last 30 years, but we are willing to take this path. And we will do everything for this process stemming from the Armenian interests to become reality,” he said.
He noted that over the last 30 years, Turkey was the one who was always pulling the plug on the process by bringing forward preconditions associated with the Artsakh conflict.
14:48,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Ombudsman of Armenia Arman Tatoyan received today Director for Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus and Central Asia Countries of FRG Federal Foreign Office Matthias Lüttenberg and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Germany to Armenia Viktor Richter, the Ombudsman’s Office reports.
Arman Tatoyan presented to the guests concrete facts and examples about the violations of rights of Armenia’s border residents by the Azerbaijani servicemen. He told them that since November 2020, the Azerbaijani armed forces are illegally deployed near the villages in Armenia’s Gegharkunik and Syunik provinces and on the roads between the communities of Syunik province.
“In addition to the human rights violations that are taking place almost every day, the Azerbaijani armed forces have also illegally blocked the Goris-Kapan and Kapan-Chakaten highways in Syunik. As a result the villages near these roads have appeared in isolation and are facing humanitarian problems”, the Ombudsman said, adding that the alternative road is not a solution as people’s right to life and security is not ensured.
The Ombudsman also emphasized that the Azerbaijani forces must be withdrawn from the roads, and a demilitarized security zone must be created.
Tatoyan also touched upon the release of the Armenian captives who are illegally held in Azerbaijan, the urgency of their return.
The meeting also covered issues relating to the judicial system, the protection of women’s rights, etc.
Credits: Ruptly
15:02,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Armenia will be provided with a new batch of vaccine against COVID-19 on the sidelines of the vaccine delivery process to the countries of the Eastern Partnership, the European Commission said, presenting the statement by Olivér Várhelyi, the Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement.
According to the statement, the first delivery under this arrangement will be 400 thousand vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech, from Portugal to Armenia.
“Each new wave of the COVID pandemic increases the urgency to step up the vaccination rate. This is no different with the newest variant, Omicron. It is only the vaccination that can save us all. And we are talking about our Eastern Partner countries, where the vaccination average rate is only 28%. So it is high time to help them to speed up the vaccination rate and get everybody fully vaccinated”, the Commissioner said.
Share
15:35,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia believes that the government will not only increase the economic growth in 2022, but also will raise the potential: 4.2% economic growth for 2021, and 5.3% for 2022, the CBA President Martin Galstyan said at a press conference.
“Certain increase not only in the current spending, but also large-scale state capital investments are expected next year, which, in fact, are based on our economic growth forecast for 2022”, he said.
The Bank’s previous forecast for 2022 was 2.4%. “After the adoption of the budget, when we already have the scenario of capital investments as a law, the state investment program to be implemented by the government, the economic growth will comprise 5.3% as a result of our predictions”, he said.
As for this year’s economic growth forecasts, the CBA chief said: “According to our estimates, our economic growth forecast for the year will be 4.2%”.
As for the inflation rate, the Bank expects that the year will end with 8.4% inflation compared to the current 9.6%.
15:43,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan arrived in Brussels where he will have a trilateral meeting with the Azeri President Ilham Aliyev hosted by the President of the European Council Charles Michel.
The trilateral-format meeting on December 14 will be preceded by a bilateral meeting with Michel, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Then on December 15, PM Pashinyan will participate in the 6th Eastern Partnership Summit. Bilateral meetings with European partners are expected within the framework of the event.
15:59,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian dram has been certainly appreciated as of the moment, President of the Central Bank Martin Galstyan said at a press conference today.
He said that many factors affect the exchange rate. “Some depreciation of the Armenian dram took place, and this happened not only to the Armenian dram. As of this moment, if I am not mistaken, there is certain appreciation of the Armenian dram”, he said, adding that different factors affect it conditioned by the demand and supply. If the demand is higher, then the dram depreciates, and vice versa. According to the CBA chief, this is a normal process.
“Due to the fundamentals, there is no reason for fluctuation. As for short-term fluctuations, they always can happen”, he added.
He stated that the Armenian public is now more tolerant towards the fluctuations compared to the past 5-6 or ten years.
17:22,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. On December 14, Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan received Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Republic of Armenia Bolat Imanbayev, the Parliament’s press service reports.
The Head of the Armenia-Kazakhstan Friendship Group Vagharshak Hakobyan also attended the meeting.
After exchanging greetings Alen Simonyan congratulated the Ambassador on the occasion of Independence Day to be marked in Kazakhstan in the near future.
The Head of Parliament highlighted the development of cooperation with Kazakhstan, in the bilateral format, as well as in the international parliamentary structures.
The sides touched upon the cooperation of the two countries in the CIS Inter-Parliamentary, the CSTO Parliamentary Assemblies, in the Inter-Parliamentary Union and in the EAEU.
In the context of bilateral relations, the Speaker also underlined that the inter-parliamentary cooperation, where he considered as a key issue the role of the Parliamentary Friendship Groups.
The post-war situation was discussed, particularly the issue of the return of Armenian prisoners of war and the captive persons by Azerbaijan.
In strengthening of the Armenian-Kazakh relations the parties highlighted the role of the Armenian community of Kazakhstan.