U.S. Secretary of State, Armenian FM sign Memorandum of Understanding  Concerning Strategic Civil Nuclear Cooperation

ArmInfo.Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a meeting in Washington. at the end of their meeting they signed a Memorandum of  Understanding Concerning Strategic Civil Nuclear Cooperation. 

Below is a report by the U.S. Department of State: 

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Good afternoon, everyone.  It is a great pleasure  to welcome the foreign minister from Armenia here to the State  Department, to the United States.  Ararat, it's very good to be with  you today, to be with your entire team.  We just had a very good  dialogue, exchange between us, and indeed a big part of the purpose  of these meetings is to relaunch the Strategic Dialogue between the  United States and Armenia that was suspended because of COVID.  This  is a very important vehicle by which we can continue to deepen and  strengthen our relationship to pursue new areas of cooperation and  collaboration, and we're very pleased to be able to do that now.

At the same time, we will shortly be signing this Memorandum of  Understanding on nuclear cooperation.  This too, for the United  States and Armenia, opens new cooperative paths and, I think, can  also serve to strengthen very much the bilateral relationship between  us.

I just want to take this opportunity as we're sitting here to, in the  first instance, praise the leadership of the prime minister and his  government, the democratic reforms that they've been pursuing, the  progress that continues to be made - but also to very much welcome  the dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and to express real  appreciation for the vision and the courage and the flexibility that  the prime minister and Armenia have been showing in this process  working toward what we all want, which is a lasting peace.

And finally, let me say, Mr. Minister, to you, to all of your  colleagues, it's - it really is a great pleasure being able to work  with you as we work to strengthen and deepen our relations.  These  are challenging times in many, many ways, and they're challenging for  Armenia, but know that you have a strong and true friend and partner  in the United States.  Welcome.

FOREIGN MINISTER MIRZOYAN:  Thank you.  Dear Secretary Blinken, it is  a great pleasure for me to be here.  Thank you for your invitation  and also for a very warm welcome.  This year we celebrate the 30th  anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our  two countries, and during these years we have succeeded to build very  strong relations based on common and shared values of democracy,  human rights, and the rule of law.

Now after the democratic Velvet Revolution of 2018, through joint  efforts, we elevated the level of our collaboration, cooperation to  Strategic Dialogue.  And it is very significant that I am here also  in scope of the capstone session of the Strategic Dialogue.  And  during this session, we focused on our democratic reforms, justice  reforms, cooperation in banking sphere, looking ways of deepening  cooperation in the sphere of defense, and of course prevention and  fight against corruption, and many other areas.  And we appreciate  United States efforts to support our reforms.

Armenia also appreciate United States support for developing  Armenia's energy sector, and I was talking about - I was speaking  also about exploring new areas, and here it will be honor for me to  sign with you the Memorandum of Understanding on our civil nuclear  cooperation.

And I also want to note that we value our partnership aimed at peace  and stability in our region, and in this regard I want to highlight  the important role the United States of America play as a co-chair of  the OSCE Minsk Group, which has a mandate from the international  community to facilitate a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh  conflict.  I also appreciate United States support through the  Armenia-Turkish normalization process and United States strong stance  on the recognition on the condemnation of the Armenian genocide and  confirmation of this stance this year, too.

Thank you very much.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you.

(The Memorandum of Understanding is signed.)

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you very much.  Good to be with you.

FOREIGN MINISTER MIRZOYAN:  Thank you.