Օn April 9, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Margus Tsakhna  participated in the official opening ceremony of the resident Embassy of the Republic of Estonia in the Republic of Armenia, which took place within the framework of Minister Tsahkna's official visit to Armenia.

In his remarks Minister Mirzoyan noted. Thank you, Mr. Minister.

Mr. Minister, my very dear friend Margus, I'm happy to see you once again in Yerevan at this very important location. 

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is indeed with great pleasure that I join you, all dear friends, in making this significant milestone in Armenian-Estonian relations, the opening of the resident embassy of the Republic of Estonia in Yerevan. Of course, we all understand that this decision was not easy to make, was not easy to promote, through and with all the respective agencies in the Estonian government.

Believe me, I know how difficult it is. We have our own very specific relations with our partners from the Ministry of Finance and all the other colleagues who, of course, welcome these kinds of decisions, but besides jokes, this is indeed a very important event. It reflects, of course, the commitment of Estonia, of Estonian government, and personally your commitment, dear friend, to promote further Armenian-Estonian relations, to further support, show very strong support to Armenian democracy, to people of Republic of Armenia in its desire for freedom, sovereignty, of course territorial integrity, prosperity of people.

This is the same support that we feel not only on a bilateral level, but also for 100% when it comes to Armenian-EU relations. There hasn't been any issue, any question raised by the delegation of Armenia and by the Republic of Armenia, which has not found support from the Estonian delegation. So, we highly appreciate your support, we highly appreciate your stance, and also let me congratulate all of us, you, dear Minister, but also you, Madam Ambassador, the first resident Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to the Republic of Armenia.

Please be sure, rest assured, that the team in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia is a team of friends. You can always find understanding and support there in that building, which is very close by the way, you know the address. So, congratulations to all of us.

Like you said, dear friend, dear Margus, we have a very rich past, but let's focus on the future, which is going to be for sure even brighter and even stronger. 

Congratulations.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Margus Tsahkna emphasized: “Dear friends,

Ararat, my dear friend, last time I was here, I promised that next time I come, I would open the Estonian Embassy, and exactly what we do right now is that we are opening the Estonian Embassy in the middle of Yerevan. And I can say to you that this year, it's a historical thing: Estonia is a small country, other countries, mainly in Europe, are closing their embassies – we are opening five new ones, and the Estonian Embassy in Armenia is the first one. 

This is our priority, because I see that you are guiding Armenia to peace, towards European values, towards prosperity, and we would like to be your friends, we are actually, want to be supportive, and the highest support, highest commitment on the diplomatic level is actually with the Embassy here. It's permanent, we have our new ambassador who has done a great job, and now and in the future, even more, and I'm really grateful for your support, because politically, it's easy to make a decision about opening the Embassy, but in real life, it takes time, it takes about diplomatic conversation, and as well, practicalities, and I'm really grateful for this, building the team.

We are not here alone, we are together with Canada and Sweden, and some going up the Nordic pool, but the Nordics are mainly the most trusted friends, and you can count on us, that the Estonians are Armenia's friends. This is something interesting that, I don't know from where, from history, it is coming that we love you all, as an Armenian people, even we are far away from each other, and we want to be together with you in these challenging times, you're making historical decisions for the nation, also for the region, and also for Europe. I'm really happy that soon our Prime Minister will come and visit as well, many of the European community leaders will come here as well, European Union leaders will come here, and this is very practical, as well bilateral.

Today we opened the practical exercise about cyber security, more than 10 different teams from our agencies, practically exercising how to stand against all the attacks, as well we just opened the business program for Armenian businesses to find new markets, very practical level. So I can assure you that we are already here, together with you, there will be more coming here, but most of all I really would like to thank you, my good friend Ararat, and also the Armenian people, that you have guts to make decisions, and to follow your spirit, and the spirit is freedom. And we know today's world is a very, very crazy world, that unfortunately freedom is not granted, we must stand for freedom, but we have an exercise and experience from the past as well, that you can never do it alone.

You must always have friends, and at least I can assure you that Estonians will remain your best friends, at least in Europe, maybe in the world. So thank you again, my good friend, for this opportunity to be here in this historical moment, opening the embassy, our roots of friendship between two nations going back, I don't know how many decades, but I'm sure that it will be continuing even more in the future. We Estonians, we used to live in this location where we are, like 10,000 years or even more, we have a plan for the next 10,000 years, so it's the same thing.

So let's join this common plan for the future, and let's stand for the future, enjoy the freedom, and once more, thank you very much for this cooperation. 

Thank you.”