Cyprus to Open Embassy in Yerevan

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has received the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus, Konstantinos Kombos, who is in Armenia on an official visit. The Prime Minister welcomed the visit of the Cypriot Foreign Minister and his delegation, stating, “I am pleased to see that there is a certain new dynamic in our relations. Our relations have always been warm, but despite this, we must continue to make progress. We have a quite extensive agenda for cooperation in various sectors. We are engaging in dialogues in areas of security and foreign policy. I would like to draw our attention to the economic agenda, which I believe is very important for strengthening our relations. In this regard, I also attach great importance to the trilateral format that also includes Greece. I hope that we will organize a meeting this summer, which I think is very important. Welcome, I am glad to see you. I would like to hear your impressions, your comments on regional and international developments, and of course, also about our bilateral agenda.”

Konstantinos Kombos expressed gratitude for the warm welcome and added, “It is a great honor for me to be here. We have already discussed many of the components you mentioned, especially how to deepen our relations. I would like to inform you that for this purpose, we will open an embassy in Yerevan within the next year. I have also discussed the business forum with my counterpart, trying to achieve more concrete results in that framework, including in areas where we already have good cooperation—defense, tourism, education, and we will pay attention to these areas as well. I find our relations to be extremely important for historical reasons, but there are also significant opportunities to improve them through economic results.”

Regarding the trilateral format, he stated that they are committed to it. “This format is equally important for everyone; you can be assured that we attach considerable importance to our relations. We appreciate your traditional principled position on the Cyprus issue.”

In order to strengthen diplomatic relations, the interlocutors stressed the importance of the reciprocal opening of diplomatic representations in their capitals. At the same time, the sides discussed the further development of Armenia-European Union cooperation and exchanged thoughts on the ongoing processes in the South Caucasus and the steps for ensuring regional peace and stability. In this context, the Prime Minister emphasized the importance of the EU civilian mission's activities in Armenia.