April 12 WT World Music Festival to Highlight Armenia

Karakhanian Suren
West Texas A&M University
April 3 2026
Chip ChandlerApr 02, 2026

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April 12 WT World Music Festival to Highlight Armenia

 

CANYON, Texas — The sounds of Armenia will be celebrated at West Texas A&M University’s second World Music Festival.

The festival will begin at 3 p.m. April 12 with a concert featuring Armenian concert pianist Dr. Hayk Arsenyan in Mary Moody Northen Recital Hall on WT’s Canyon campus.

Admission is free. For information, call 806-651-2840.

Organizer Mila Abbasova, instructor of music theory and piano, is Armenian by birth but grew up in Azerbaijan.

“I grew up in a very international atmosphere, and my piano teacher was a very famous Armenian,” Abbasova said. “We always played music from Eastern Europe, but I never actually performed Armenian music in recital, so this is a very special concert for me.

“Music from my homeland touches my heart and brings memories back,” she said.

The concert also will feature the WT Symphonic Band, directed by Don Lefevre, associate professor of music and director of bands, as well as performances by Jessica Schury Peckham, assistant professor of flute; Dr. Jenny Miller, adjunct professor of harp; and Kanani Crandall, WT alumna.

Arsenyan, a New York-based pianist and composer, has appeared in numerous recitals throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas, in venues such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Salle Cortot (Paris), the Concourse (Sydney), Cadillac-Shanghai Concert Hall (China), Kumin Hall (Tokyo), Petranka Mozarteum (Prague), Auditorio Delibes (Valladolid), Dar-Al-Assad Opera House (Damascus), Sala Cervantes (Havana), MoBU (Sao Paolo), Tchaikovsky Hall (Moscow), Philippines National Museum (Bacolod), and televised recitals at the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago, the Phillips Collection Series in Washington, D.C., and at the Nixon Presidential Museum in Los Angeles.

At the age of 11, Arsenyan made his debut at the Armenian Philharmonic performing his own “Requiem” for the piano and orchestra. At the age of 17, he made his European debut as a soloist with the Radio France National Philharmonic Orchestra and was awarded a platinum medal by the City of Paris. In 2007, Arsenyan debuted at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall performing with Pinchas Zukerman and the Manhattan Chamber Sinfonia.

A long-time professor at New York University’s Tisch School, Arsenyan has presented guest lectures and masterclasses at universities and conservatories around the globe.

Fostering an appreciation of the arts is a key component of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.

That plan is fueled by the historic One West comprehensive fundraising campaign, which reached its initial $125 million goal 18 months after publicly launching in September 2021. The campaign, which is now winding down, has raised more than $175 million.

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Armenia’s Artur Davtyan vaults to fifth consecutive gold at World Cup of Cair

Emil Lazarian
International Gymnast Media
April 7 2026

Written by John Crumlish for International Gymnast Online

Monday, April 6, 2026

For the fifth consecutive time in the history of the competition, four-time Olympian Artur Davtyan won gold on vault at the World Cup of Cairo that ended Monday.

AIN gymnast Daniel Marinov earned gold on floor exercise. Born December 17, 2004, Bulgaria, he finished seventh all-around, third on parallel bars, seventh on vault and eighth on horizontal bar at last year’s World Championships in Jakarta.

China’s Li Hongyan claimed gold on horizontal bar. Li, a 23-year-old native of Sichuan, placed 13th all-around and sixth on parallel bars at the 2019 Junior World Championships in Gyor, and fourth on horizontal bar at last year’s World Cup of Osijek. He was a member of China’s gold medal-winning squad at last month’s American Cup.

The other men’s winners were defending champion Hamlet Manukyan of Armenia on pommel horse, Eleftherios Petrounias of Greece on still rings and Liu Yang of China on parallel bars.

In the women’s competition, Kaylia Nemour of Algeria finished first on uneven bars, even with a fall, and followed up with gold on balance beam. She won the same two events at last year’s competition.

Spain’s Laia Font placed first on vault. Born February 20, 2007, in Gironella, she placed 22nd all-around at the 2025 World Championships in Jakarta and sixth on vault at the 2025 European Championships in Leipzig. Font took bronze on vault at last month’s World Cup of Antalya, where she was fourth on floor exercise, sixth on uneven bars and sixth on balance beam.

Ke Qinqin of China took gold on floor exercise and silver on balance beam. Ke, a 15-year-old from Hubei, was a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese team at last month’s American Cup mixed team competition in Nevada.

2026 World Cup of Cairo
April 3-6

Women:

Vault:

  1. Laia Font ESP 13.533
  2. Hillary Heron PAN 13.499
  3. Yu Linmin CHN 13.349

Uneven Bars:

  1. Kaylia Nemour ALG 14.033
  2. Jiang Shuting CHN 13.700
  3. Lucija Hribar SLO 13.100

Balance Beam:

  1. Kaylia Nemour ALG 14.266
  2. Ke Qinqin CHN 14.166
  3. Qiu Qiyuan CHN 12.833

Floor Exercise:

  1. Ke Qinqin CHN 12.966
  2. Hillary Heron PAN 12.933
  3. Laia Font ESP 12.900

Men:

Floor Exercise:

  1. Daniel Marinov AIN 14.233
  2. Arsenii Dukhno AIN 14.133
  3. Karl Yulo PHI 14.000

Pommel Horse:

  1. Hamlet Manukyan ARM 14.800
  2. Zeinolla Idrissov KAZ 14.566
  3. Nariman Kurbanov KAZ 14.566*

*tie broken by Idrissov’s higher Execution score

Still Rings:

  1. Eleftherios Petrounias GRE 14.366
  2. Artur Avetisyan ARM 14.300
  3. Liu Yang CHN 13.866

Vault:

  1. Artur Davtyan ARM 14.666
  2. Assan Salimov KAZ 14.083
  3. Jonas Danek CZE 14.016

Parallel Bars:

  1. Liu Yang CHN 14.366
  2. Mohamed Afify EGY 14.200
  3. Arsenii Dukhno AIN 14.166

Horizontal Bar:

  1. Li Hongyan CHN 14.200
  2. Marios Georgiou CYP 13.900
  3. Karl Yulo PHI 13.733

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At the Armenian Museum of America, Arshile Gorky’s Work Returns to Watertown

Baghdasarian Karlen
Boston Art Review
April 7 2026

Through paintings, drawings, prints, and a musical documentary, “Arshile Gorky: Redrawing Community and Connections” charts the artist’s evolution from an Armenian immigrant in Watertown to a defining figure of modern American art.

Review by Abigail Feliciano


At the Armenian Museum of America, “Arshile Gorky: Redrawing Community and Connections” invites viewers to reflect on the artist’s humble beginnings as an immigrant in Watertown and his later evolution as a pioneer of American Abstract Expressionism. The exhibition, curated by Kim S. Theriault and on view through April 26, draws deeply on Gorky’s relationships and the ways in which he relied on family, friends, and surroundings to foster his artistic practice. Through twenty-seven works, including paintings, drawings, prints, and a musical documentary, viewers take a kaleidoscopic journey through the course of Gorky’s career, encountering the techniques, motifs, and compositions inspired by the cultural vanguard of his era that would define Gorky as a master of abstraction. 

Along the Charles River, Watertown’s thriving manufacturing industry promised opportunity for immigrants and became a developed community for those fleeing the Armenian Genocide. In 1920, Arshile Gorky, still referred to by his birth name Vostanik Manoug Adoian, arrived in the US with his sister Vartoosh Mooradian and settled in Watertown, reconnecting with relatives. Straying from societal norms and the expectations of his family, Gorky was dissatisfied with factory work and wanted to pursue a career as an artist. He achieved his dream by enrolling in classes at the newly founded New England School of Art and studying the old masters at the Museums of Fine Arts, Boston. His earliest models included friends, family, and himself, as demonstrated in Self-Portrait (1923–24), an early surviving work painted in Watertown. The artist rendered himself in a subdued palette, emphasizing texture through thick, layered brushstrokes across his jacket and shirt collar, while sweeping, gestural marks articulate facial features such as the bridge of his nose. His averted gaze evokes a sense of introspection. From his formative stages, the artist demonstrated a technical command of the medium. 

In 1924, during a period of reinvention, the artist shed his identity as an Armenian refugee, renaming himself after the Russian/Soviet writer Maxim Gorky and moving to New York City, determined to make his mark on America’s richest artistic hub. Throughout the ongoing process of self-fashioning, Gorky actively constructed a revised biography, at times claiming Russian and/or Georgian noble origins and formal training in Europe, creating distance from his Armenian heritage while situating himself within a more cosmopolitan artistic identity.

Arshile Gorky, Self-Portrait, 1923–24. Oil on canvas board, 16 x 12 inches. Front, upper left: Gorky. Reverse not inscribed. Private collection.

Gorky aligned himself with the most avant-garde movements available to him. His compositions evince a reverence for artists like Pablo Picasso and Paul Cézanne.Yet these references signal more than the influence of established figures. Although Gorky falsely claimed to have studied in Paris, his engagement with Cubism and abstraction reflects a deliberate effort to assert himself within a contemporary canon. Working in the United States, he familiarized himself with developments that had only recently emerged in Europe and were still gaining traction among a limited circle of forward-looking collectors. His knowledge and practice underscored both his ambition and tenacity. 

In Still Life with Pitcher and Pears (c. 1926–27) the artist depicts an arrangement with an assortment of fruit and tableware with multiple perspectives—a technique popularized by Cézanne. In the tabletop scene Still Life with Pitcher (c. 1928–29), Gorky mimics Picasso’s later Cubist works, where representational objects are broken into fields of color and patterns, deconstructed across a tabletop. In this instance, a pitcher is divided by a black angular mark. It is partially abstracted in white to the right and rendered realistically in grey to the left. By absorbing and reworking these frameworks, Gorky developed a visual language that was not only informed by modernism, but actively participated in shaping its evolving trajectory.

As one traverses the exhibition space, it becomes difficult to ignore the music, laden with tension, playing in the distance. Nestled in an intimate screening room, the documentary created by Armenian American composer and documentarian Mary Kouyoumdjian and Armenian Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, They Will Take My Island (2020), plays on repeat, featuring JACK Quartet and Silvana Quartet. This thirty-one-minute piece chronicles Gorky’s life as an Armenian immigrant through grief, displacement, and his formation as an artist. Gorky’s relationship with his mother, whom he lost to starvation in 1919, is central to the film, a photograph of the two of them during his youth appearing on screen recurring throughout. The artist would revisit her memory throughout his life as a source of inspiration.

In the somber black-and-white photograph, Gorky’s mother, Shushan Der Marderosian Adoian, sits dressed in a floral apron and a headscarf, gently closed fists resting in her lap. Dressed sharply, Gorky stands alongside her, holding a small bouquet of flowers. They both look beyond the frame with vacant stares. Intended to be sent to Gorky’s father in America along with a request for financial support, the photograph is a reminder of the family that is left waiting in Armenia. This photograph was the motivating force behind the painting The Artist and His Mother (c. 1926–c. 1936), one of Gorky’s most recognized masterworks, which exists in multiple versions now held by institutions including the National Gallery of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Gorky repeatedly invoked his mother’s presence by drawing her image as seen in Study for Mother and Son (c. 1936), where her likeness is captured in densely worked graphite.

At the heart of the exhibition are the relationships that Gorky forged, reflected in the personal objects on view. In Portrait of De Hirsh Margules and Portrait of Blanche Margules (both c. 1937–38), ink on paper doily drawings with minimal mark-making, Gorky outlines the profiles of his artist friend and his wife. The simplicity of the composition implies that the works were executed with a sense of immediacy, as if responding directly to a moment of inspiration. The fragility of these objects makes the preservation of the materials so remarkable. It’s apparent that these works were deeply cherished. Gorky’s relationships with fellow artists emerged as a crucial force to both his working process and his sense of belonging.

Drawing, 4 P.M. (c. 1945–46) is a double-sided composition in graphite pencil and crayon on paper composed of biomorphic shapes and deliberate lines. Mounted for 360-degree viewing, it allows audiences a unique opportunity to engage with these rarely exhibited illustrations. Drastically different from his earlier works, here Gorky relied less on inspiration from painters who came before him and more on his immediate surroundings and memories, engaging with Surrealist ideas of autonomous drawing and dream imagery. Centrally placed in the room, these drawings are in dialogue with the other objects to pay homage to Gorky’s fully realized method of organic forms and flowing lines.

Gorky’s work demonstrates an aptitude for navigating the zeitgeist of his time; through synthesizing surrealist, abstract, and modernist frameworks, he formulates an approach that was increasingly his own. By tracing his artistic development alongside his personal history, “Arshile Gorky: Redrawing Community and Connections” situates Gorky as a progenitor of Abstract Expressionism. Comprising generous loans from the Armenian diaspora, the exhibition reinforces that Gorky’s work has been sustained not solely by institutions, but by individuals who chose to steward his place in art history

“Arshile Gorky: Redrawing Community and Connections” is on view through April 26, 2026, at the Armenian Museum of America, 65 Main Street, Watertown, MA.


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The Armenian Genocide’s Warning for a Post-War Iran

Emil Lazarian
The National Interest
April 7 2026

The Armenian Genocide’s Warning for a Post-War Iran

April 7, 2026
By: Stephan Pechdimaldji

The breakup of states in the Middle East is often accompanied by waves of ethnic or sectarian violence.

As the Iran War enters its sixth week, the world’s attention is understandably centered on the smoke rising above Tehran and the paralyzed shipping lanes of the Strait of Hormuz. With the Iranian regime facing an existential crisis and Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei reportedly incapacitated, the international community is already drafting blueprints for a “New Middle East.” However, if these plans ignore the century-old lessons of the Armenian Genocide, they risk repeating a cycle of ethnic erasure that could set the entire region ablaze.

To many, the 1915 Ottoman slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians feels like a distant historical footnote. But in the context of the 2026 Iran War, it is a living model for disaster.

The current conflict has already placed Armenia at a dangerous crossroads. With Azerbaijan and Turkey potentially looking to exploit a weakened Tehran, Armenia’s southern province of Syunik has become one of the most contested patches of land in Eurasia. For years, Azerbaijan and Turkey have lobbied for the “Zangezur Corridor,” a land bridge through Armenian territory that would physically connect the Turkic world.

Despite the Trump administration’s push for the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP)—which proposes a 99-year lease for a private US company to manage the transit route—there are no sufficient guarantees for Armenian sovereignty. Instead, it might enable the same predatory patterns that preceded the 1915 genocide, with the exploitation of a global conflict to rectify borders through the removal of indigenous populations.

We have seen this playbook before. In 2020, under the cover of a global pandemic and a US election, Azerbaijan launched an illegal war against Armenia that culminated in the forced displacement of more than 120,000 Armenians from their ancestral homeland of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023. If Syunik falls to an Azerbaijani-Turkish incursion under the cover of the chaos of an Iranian state collapse, the result might not just be a new road, but the ethnic cleansing of the last remaining Armenian stronghold in the region.

The central tragedy of modern Armenian history is how international silence greenlit further atrocities. In 1939, Adolf Hitler famously asked, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” He understood that unpunished crimes are invitations to repeat them.

That is why increased international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, an event that Turkey and Azerbaijan both deny to this day, is not merely a symbolic gesture but rather a strategic deterrent. It sends a message to Baku and Ankara that the international community is finally watching. Official recognition transforms the Armenian border from a local dispute into a global human rights frontier.

What’s more, if Azerbaijan and Turkey are serious about regional stability and peace, then they must officially acknowledge the genocide (April 24, Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, would be a fitting date). Anything short of full recognition, devoid of verbal gymnastics and euphemisms, should be viewed as a telltale sign of malicious intentions.

Furthermore, Iran itself is a mosaic of ethnicities, including a significant Armenian minority and a massive Azerbaijan population in the northwest. As the war threatens to fragment the Iranian state, the risk of internal cleansing or retaliatory ethnic violence mirrors the darkest days of Iraq and Syria in the 2000s and 2010s. A world that has fully reckoned with the Armenian Genocide is a world better equipped to monitor and prevent similar atrocities against the Kurds, Balochis, Arabs, Azeris, and Armenians within a destabilized Iran.

We cannot build a stable post-war order on a foundation of historical amnesia. If the goal of the current intervention in Iran is to bring peace and prosperity to the region—as the proposed Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity suggests—that peace must be grounded in the sanctity of existing borders and protection of vulnerable groups.

Recognizing the Armenian Genocide today is an act of preventive diplomacy. It tells survivors of the past and the potential victims of the future that the era of forgotten massacres is over. If we fail to acknowledge the ghosts of 1915 now, we are simply inviting them to haunt the ruins of 2026.

About the Author: Stephan Pechdimaldji

Stephan Pechdimaldji is a communications strategist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a first-generation Armenian American and the grandson of survivors of the Armenian genocide. His work has been featured in Newsweek and Foreign Policy. You can follow him on X: @spechdimaldji.

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Armenpress: Saudi Arabia intercepts two drones

Vorskanian Yeghisabet
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The Ministry of Defense of Saudi Arabia reported that in the past few hours it has neutralized two unmanned aerial vehicles.

The U.S. and Israel launched what they described as a pre-emptive strike against Iran on February 28, claiming that Tehran was developing a nuclear weapon and posed a threat—an allegation Iran has denied. In response, Iran launched counterattacks, firing missiles and drones at Israel, as well as at U.S. assets and other targets across the Middle East.

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Published by Armenpress, original at 
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Iranian drone strikes UAE telecommunications building

Chmshkian Vicken
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An Iranian drone attack damaged a telecommunications building in Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, according to the WAM news agency. The report said that no one was injured.

The attack targeted a building of the Du telecom company.

The U.S. and Israel launched what they described as a pre-emptive strike against Iran on February 28, claiming that Tehran was developing a nuclear weapon and posed a threat—an allegation Iran has denied. In response, Iran launched counterattacks, firing missiles and drones at Israel, as well as at U.S. assets and other targets across the Middle East.

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Six injured in Iranian attack on northern Kuwait

Ophelia Vardapetian
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Kuwaiti authorities have announced that six people have been injured from falling projectiles and shrapnel on one of the residential areas north of the country after an Iranian attack.

Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported that emergency first-responders were immediately dispatched to the scene.

Earlier, Kuwait’s Ministry of Defense reported that in the past 24 hours, 9 ballistic missiles, 4 cruise missiles, and 31 drones were intercepted. 

The U.S. and Israel launched what they described as a pre-emptive strike against Iran on February 28, claiming that Tehran was developing a nuclear weapon and posed a threat—an allegation Iran has denied. In response, Iran launched counterattacks, firing missiles and drones at Israel, as well as at U.S. assets and other targets across the Middle East. 

Published by Armenpress, original at 
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US-Israeli strike hits Iran’s largest petrochemical complex

Garnik Tadevosian
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A US-Israeli strike has targeted Iran’s South Pars petrochemical complex in the southwestern energy hub of Asaluyeh, according to Iranian media reports.

Mehr News Agency said attacks hit petrochemical facilities in Asaluyeh, including the Jam and Damavand plants.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed that the military had struck what he called Iran’s largest petrochemical facility.

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Tehran rejects latest ceasefire proposal – IRNA

Tambiyan Samvel
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Iran has rejected the latest ceasefire proposal by regional mediators Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, IRNA News Agency reported.

The agency said it has conveyed its response to the U.S. through Pakistan, a key mediator.

“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press on Monday.

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“China–Armenia relations embark on a new historical stage” — Article by Ambas

Edgar Tavakalian
China09:00, 6 April 2026
Read the article in: ArabicՀայերենRusskiyTürkçe中文

Article by Li Xinwei, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Armenia

Today marks the 34th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Armenia. On April 6, 1992, the two countries officially established diplomatic relations, opening a new era of friendly engagement. On August 31, 2025, the parties established a strategic partnership, outlining new benchmarks for mutually beneficial cooperation. At this new historical stage, bilateral relations have broad prospects for development and great potential.

Over the past year, friendly relations between China and Armenia have achieved significant results.

Mutual trust has deepened further, opening a new chapter in bilateral relations. China and Armenia treat each other with respect and cooperate on the basis of equality, providing mutual support on issues concerning each other’s core interests. The Armenian side firmly adheres to the “One China” principle, while the Chinese side resolutely supports Armenia’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the inviolability of its borders.

Over the past year, high-level contacts have been intensive, and dialogue and cooperation at various levels have continued to develop actively. Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan visited China to participate in the “SCO+” format meeting, as well as events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese people in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War.

During the visit, President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping met with Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, and the parties jointly announced the establishment of a strategic partnership between the two countries, which became a new milestone in the development of bilateral relations.

Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Su Hui visited Armenia and held meetings with President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan, President of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan, and Vice President of the National Assembly Hakob Arshakyan.

The Vice President of the National Assembly of Armenia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Economy, the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, and other officials of Armenia visited China. In turn, delegations from the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the Seismological Administration, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences visited Armenia, giving new impetus to the development of bilateral relations.

Sincere cooperation and practical results benefit the peoples. China is Armenia’s second-largest trading partner. In 2025, bilateral trade volume exceeded 2.2 billion US dollars, increasing by 24.5% compared to the previous year.

Thanks to its strong price-quality ratio, powerful supply chain capabilities, and continuously growing technological components, Chinese high-tech industrial products—mobile phones, computers, and new energy vehicles—are actively entering the daily lives of Armenia’s population. Well-known Chinese automobile brands such as Hongqi, NIO, and Changan are opening and developing their representative offices here.

China’s major exhibitions, including the China International Import Expo, the Canton Fair, the China International Fair for Trade in Services, and the China International Consumer Products Expo, provide Armenian brands and high-quality products with platforms to enter the Chinese market.

Joint key projects are progressing steadily and consistently: the construction project of the new studio of Armenia’s Public Television, implemented with the support of the Chinese government, is proceeding according to plan; sections of the “North–South” highway built by a Chinese company have been commissioned; solar power plants have been put into operation.

Armenia has officially joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, creating new opportunities for cooperation between the two countries in the fields of infrastructure and investment.

People-to-people ties and mutual understanding are deepening, and humanitarian exchanges are becoming more active. In recent years, the Chinese language has continued to gain popularity in Armenia: the number of students at the Confucius Institute affiliated with Brusov State University is steadily increasing, and two additional teaching centers are planned to open in 2026. The “Chinese Bridge” competition, as well as exhibitions dedicated to study and work opportunities in China, attract wide attention and are highly appreciated by Armenian society.

The Aram Khachaturian International Competition has been held in China, and the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra has toured in China. Public organizations of the two countries organize mutual exhibitions of cultural values, art festivals, and scientific conferences, forming a rich landscape of cultural events and strengthening the social foundation of friendship between China and Armenia.

Direct flights between the two countries continue to operate successfully, and the positive impact of the visa-free regime is becoming more visible. In 2025, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Armenia exceeded 45,000, increasing by 37.1% compared to the previous year.

The year 2026 marks the beginning of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, as well as the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Recently, the 4th session of the 14th National People’s Congress and the 4th session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference were successfully held, during which the “Government Work Report” and the 15th Five-Year Plan were discussed and approved, defining China’s strategic development guidelines and providing clarity and positive energy for global development.

In accordance with the key decisions of the “Two Sessions,” the Chinese side plans to ensure annual economic growth of 4.5–5%, focusing on the development of the domestic market, the formation of new drivers of economic growth, ensuring technological independence and self-reliance in high-tech sectors, deepening reforms, integrating urban and rural development, improving living standards, and advancing environmentally sustainable transformation.

China intends to leverage its vast markets, modern industrial system, and innovative achievements in green development for the benefit of the entire world.

China intends to further expand high-level openness and cooperation, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, steadily advance high-quality joint construction of the “Belt and Road” initiative, and provide other countries with a broad and diverse “list of opportunities.”

China firmly supports the international system centered on the United Nations, the international order based on international law, and the multilateral trading system based on the World Trade Organization. China will continue to promote the idea of building a community with a shared future for mankind, accelerate the implementation of four global initiatives, and encourage more countries to participate in the International Organization for Mediation. At the same time, China will continue to maintain its role as one of the world’s major forces for peace, contributing to global stability and justice.

Armenia is a long-standing friend of China, dating back to the time of the Great Silk Road, and in the new era, a reliable strategic partner. The Chinese side sincerely welcomes Armenia’s aspiration to move forward together with China and fully benefit from emerging opportunities. China is ready to work with Armenia to implement the important agreements reached between the leaders of the two countries, continuously deepen political coordination, enrich the substance of bilateral relations, and contribute to the growing well-being of the two peoples.

In the Year of the Horse according to the Chinese calendar, let us work together to promote cooperation in all fields, “firmly hold the reins and confidently gallop forward,” act boldly and energetically, hand in hand, opening a brighter future for China–Armenia relations and creating a new era of peace, development, and mutually beneficial cooperation.

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