On July 14 Minister Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice.

At the beginning of the meeting Minister Nalbandian stressed Armenia’s determination to enhance and deepen relations with the US in all possible areas and pursue development and strengthening of friendly partnership and expansion of cooperation between the two countries.

Armenian Foreign Minister and US State Secretary noted that the history and traditions of Armenian – US relations, the wide legal base and mutual political will provide an opportunity for developing bilateral ties in different areas.

Minister Nalbandian highly appreciated US Government projects, aimed at development of different fields of Armenian economy and the US assistance of about 1.9 milliard US dollars since the Armenian independence.

The two discussed the recent developments of the Nagorno Karabakh peace process. In this context it was mentioned that the problem can be solved only by means of peaceful negotiations, which are being conducted  within the frameworks of the OSCE Minsk Group. They highly appreciated the efforts of the Minsk Group Co-chairs and stressed the importance of continuation of talks on the base of the Madrid proposals of 2007, which creates possibility to register a progress in the peace process.

Speaking on the perspectives of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, Minister Nalbandian reaffirmed Armenia’s readiness to establish diplomatic relations and opening of Armenian-Turkish border without any preconditions. Edward Nalbandian also presented the steps undertaken by Armenia in this direction.

The two also discussed the Senate confirmation process of the US Ambassador nominee to Armenia. In this context, Minister Nalbandian, expressed hope, that the candidature of the new Ambassador would soon be confirmed and her arrival in Armenia would have a positive impact for further development of bilateral relations.

The ceremony of signing of “Joint Action Plan between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Government of the United States of America on Combating Smuggling of Nuclear and Radioactive Materials” took place after the meeting,. The document was signed by Minister Nalbandian and State Secretary Rice.

On the same day, Minister Nalbandian met Assistant to the US President, Deputy Adviser of the US President on National Security, Ambassador James Jeffrey. In the course of the meeting the sides focused on the Armenian-US partnership in the security area, the process of Armenia-NATO cooperation, as well as issues of regional security and stability. Minister Nalbandian and Ambassador Jeffrey exchanged ideas on the Nagorno-Karabagh peace-process, normalisation of Armenian-Turkish relations and number of issues of mutual interest.

On July 14, in the afternoon Minister Nalbandian was received at the US Congress, where he met with Chairman of Foreign Relations Committee of the House of Representatives Howard Berman. Armenian Foreign Minister highly appreciated the role of the US Congress in the process of development of Armenian-US relations and years-long attention by the US Senate and the House of Representatives paid to the issues related to Armenia.

On the request of Congressman Berman, Minister Nalbandian presented recent developments in the Nagorno Karabakh peace-process, perspectives of settlement of Armenian-Turkish relations, as well as Armenia’s approaches on the regional and international issues. Howard Berman noted, that his Commission attaches importance to development of cooperation with Armenia and will continue to make efforts in this direction