Acting Foreign Minister Armen Grigoryan received the Chairman of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations

17 August, 2021

On August 17, Acting Foreign Minister Armen Grigoryan received Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Chairman of the Indian Cultural for Council Relations, Member of the Upper House of the Indian Parliament.

Touching upon the centuries-old traditional, friendly Armenian-Indian relations, Armen Grigoryan commended the cooperation between the two countries in bilateral and multilateral formats and the high-level political dialogue.

The sides reiterated their readiness to further deepen and strengthen the comprehensive Armenian-Indian cooperation in political, economic and cultural spheres. Armen Gorigoryan noted that India, as an influential member of the international community, plays a significant role in global and regional issues. In his turn, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe said that Armenia is one of India's reliable partners in the Eurasian region.

The sides highlighted the spheres of information technologies, agriculture, healthcare, defense as prospective directions for deepening the cooperation, considering the activity of the Armenian-Indian intergovernmental commission as a key for the implementation of the outlined programs in the economic sphere.

During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on the situation resulting from Azerbaijan's aggression against Artsakh. Armen Grigoryan highly appreciated the principled statement of the Foreign Ministry of India on the situation following the infiltration of the Azerbaijani armed forces into the sovereign territory of Armenia. The Armenian side stressed that it has always supported India in the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe emphasized the importance of a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship.

In the context of expanding cultural cooperation, Armen Grigoryan praised the activity of the Indian Cultural Center in Armenia. The implementation of exchanges in the fields of film production, youth and education was also considered prospective.

The interlocutors also considered the opening of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Yerevan the day before as a symbolic sign of Armenian-Indian friendship.

Touching upon the inter-parliamentary cooperation, the sides underlined the importance of establishing friendship groups in the parliaments of the two countries.

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