The Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Maja Gojkovic met today with Armenian Parliament Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan, in official two-day visit to the Republic of Serbia, and the two parliament speakers signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
Speaking of the traditionally good relations between Serbia and Armenia, grounded in centuries of friendship and the two nations’ historical closeness, Gojkovic and Mirzoyan opined that there is ample room to continue developing the relationship, an objective for which political dialogue had been intensified in the last few years.
Gojkovic stressed that it is in Serbia and Armenia’s common interest to advance overall bilateral cooperation, as evidenced in the Memorandum of Understanding signed today to give the parliamentary cooperation an institutional form. The Serbian Assembly Speaker said that the Memorandum opens up new avenues to advance parliamentary cooperation, especially at the level of working bodies in charge of foreign affairs, the economy, education and culture, parliamentary friendship groups and the parliamentary delegations in multilateral bodies such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union, PACE, OSCE PA and other.
Gojkovic thanked the Republic of Armenia for its understanding of Serbia’s side in the Kosovo-Metohija issue, the fact that it had not recognized the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo-Metohija and for not voting against Serbia’s interests in international bodies.
Mirzoyan said that the Serbian and Armenian people share historically friendly ties, cooperation dating a long way back and have in times of trouble shown great understanding and compassion for one another.
Mirzoyan said that the Armenian people is very much in favour of developing the relationship with Serbia and thanked the country for the support it shows to the Armenian community living in it.
Mirzoyan emphasized the importance of parliamentary cooperation for the overall bilateral relations, opining that friendship groups and committees can help advance the existing cooperation and highlighting the importance of cooperation in international organizations.
Speaking of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, Mirzoyan said that a peaceful resolution is one of Armenia’s foreign policy goals. Mirzoyan said that conflicts are different, but they all share one thing in common – their resolution can be achieved by peaceful means and negotiations, adding that for Armenia it is important that international partners take a balanced view and support dialogue.
Gojkovic and Mirzoyan also spoke about the further development of economic cooperation, opining that there is ample room for cooperation in a number of fields for example information technologies and digitalization.
Gojkovic added that the Free Trade Agreement with the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union the Serbian Assembly recently ratified opened up significant new potentials for the development of economic cooperation.
Gojkovic and Mirzoyan agreed that the recent abolition of visas for Armenian nationals and reciprocal abolition of visas for Serbian national is especially important for the further development of economic cooperation and ties between the two nations.
Gojkovic and Mirzoyan praised the opening of the Serbian Embassy in Armenia, with Gojkovic saying she expected Armenia to open an Embassy in Belgrade soon.
At the beginning of the Armenian Parliament Speaker’s visit, Gojkovic and Mirzoyan laid a wreath at the monument to Serbian-Armenian friendship.
