On March 18, the Armenian Foreign Affairs Minister Edward Nalbandian met with Audronius Ažubalis, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Lithuanian Foreign Minister who arrived in Yerevan.

Welcoming the guest, Edward Nalbandian noted, "It is symbolic that yesterday – the first day of the visit of the Lithuanian Foreign Minister visits, the National Day of Lithuania was celebrated in Yerevan." Edward Nalbandian added that it also was a symbolic fact that Lithuania is the first country that recognized Armenia's independence in 1991.

Expressing gratitude to the Armenian Foreign Minister for warm reception and participation at the events dedicated to the National Day of Lithuania the previous day, Audronius Ažubalis noted that the Armenian-Lithuanian cooperation is on a high-level and there are good conditions for their further strengthening and deepening.

The Ministers Nalbandian and Ažubalis exchanged views on March 17 in the non –official format on the bilateral relations, as well as a number of regional and international issues.

During today’s meeting, the Ministers continued discussions in extended formats, focusing on the agenda issues of the OSCE. In this context, the Armenian Foreign Minister said,”Armenia is an active member of the OSCE, involved in all directions of the activities implemented by the Organization, contributes to the Organization’s reforms, their being through the Corfu process or other formats.”

Audronius Ažubalis presented to Edward Nalbandian the priorities and scheduled activities of Lithuanian chairmanship.

In response, Edward Nalbandian said that Armenia has supported Lithuania's election as the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and will bring its contribution to the steps aimed at the raising of Organization's role and efficiency during the Lithuanian chairmanship.

The sides touched upon the reforms implemented in Armenia, as well as cooperation conducting with the international organizations in that process.

In the course of meeting the sides had a thorough talk on the recent developments in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. In that context, Edward Nalbandian underlined that the Armenian position is in line with the statements on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue made in the frames of the OSCE-2008 December in Helsinki, 2009 December in Athens, 2010 July in Almaty and 2010 December in Astana- as well as the statements made by the Presidents of the Co-Chair countries in 2009 July in L'Aquila and 2010 June in Muskoka.

The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office reaffirmed his support to the mediatory activities of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, proposals and calls made by them, particularly the call on withdrawal of snipers from the line of contact.

They mutually mentioned that the negotiated settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue has no alternative.

Edward Nalbandian and Audronius Ažubalis had a detailed talk on the issues related to the strengthening of security in conflict zone.
Ministers' meeting was followed by a joint press conference.