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Issues related to Armenia’s foreign policy, Karabakh conflict settlement, and solution of international and regional problems were discussed at a closed-door meeting of Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan and National Assembly deputies. Nalbandyan himself made that announcement during a briefing in the National Assembly today.

“We discussed international and regional problems as well as issues related to bilateral relations and the Karabakh conflict,” Nalbandyan explained.

When asked by reporters if the closed-door meeting participants discussed the notorious report on Nagorno Karabakh that was written by PACE MP Robert Walter (UK) and approved on November 4, 2015 by PACE Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, E. Nalbandyan said “We touched upon all the issues. I gave an interview to Aravot newspaper today. I think it will be published tomorrow and you will learn the answers,” Nalbandyan said.

According to him, it is planned to start negotiations with the EU before the end of the year. “I have practice in negotiating with the EU so I can say that we will see progress quite soon,” he noted. 

The press service of Armenian Foreign Ministry reported that E. Nalbandyan conducted a meeting with the parliament’s standing committee on foreign relations. Among those present were the mentioned committee’s chairman Artak Zakaryan, the parliament vice speaker Edward Sharmazanov, the head of the Armenian delegation to PACE Hermine Naghdalayan, and chairman of the parliamentary committee on defense, national security and internal affairs, head  of Armenian delegation to NATO PA Koryun Nahapetyan.

In an interview with Panorama.am, Artak Zakaryan said that foreign policy issues, the Karabakh problem settlement, regional challenges, and the situation in PACE were discussed at the closed meeting with FM. According to him, the minister responded to questions of MPs. The media-reported issue of ‘boycotting PACE work’ was not under discussion, he said. The MP declined to answer the other questions, explaining that the meeting agenda is not subject to disclosure.

As was reported, on October 1, 2014 the PACE Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy assigned MP Robert Walter well-known for his pro-Azerbaijani position to prepare a report on Nagorno Karabakh. The very name of the report – ‘Escalation of violence in Nagorno Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan’ provoked a scandal and drew harsh criticism. In an earlier interview with Panorama.am, David Babayan, the spokesman for Nagorno Karabakh Republic’s president, voiced once again the position of NKR’s authorities regarding the report being written by Robert Walter:  “A report should be impartial, and not represent a study done by order”. “Documents made to order and smelling of caviar are unacceptable to us. We do not want such things,” he said. Member of the Armenian delegation to PACE Naira Karapetyan told Panorama.am on November 4 that the approved draft report will be presented for discussion at the winter session of PACE in 2016.