Day: January 26, 2024

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in dialogue with the Los Angeles Armenian community  Armenian Weekly

Armenia-Georgia trade exceeded $1 billion: Garibashvili  ARMENPRESS

Armenia and Georgia Sign Declaration Establishing Strategic Partnership • MassisPost  Armenian News by MassisPost

ARS Prioritizes Assisting Artsakh Armenians as its Main Objective – Asbarez.com  Asbarez Armenian News

Armenian Government Gets Minority Stake in Viva-MTS Mobile Network • MassisPost  Armenian News by MassisPost

The Armenian Relief Society Central Executive held its third plenary session from January 9 to 13 at its headquarters in Watertown, Mass. The meeting extensively discussed ARS’ organizational and public relations efforts and reevaluated its current and future programs in the homeland and Diaspora.

Projects to assist the forcibly displaced Artsakh Armenians, who are at the forefront and special focus of the Central Executive, were prioritized during the meeting, which spent most of its agenda addressing them.

Based on the resolutions of the73rd ARS International Convention and emphasizing the national imperative to ensure the return of Artsakh Armenians to their ancestral home, the Central Executive unanimously adopted a decision to provide housing for displaced Artsakh Armenians in villages in Armenia.

The meeting also decided to sponsor a project by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Bureau’s Youth Office aimed at securing jobs and training for young Artsakh Armenians, in the second phase of the program that is called “uplift.”

The ARS Central Executive had the opportunity to meet with members of the ARF Bureau, Khajag Mgrdichian and Mgrdich Mgdrdichian, who were joined by the ARF Bureau’s liaison to the ARS, Raffi Donabedian.

The prime minister of Armenia and Georgia, Nikol Pashinyan and Irakli Garibashvili, signed a strategic partnership agreement in Tbilisi on Friday.

The agreement is to promote further cooperation between the neighboring countries in the spheres of economy, diplomacy and security, including the delimitation of borders between the two countries, which Pashinyan said Yerevan and Tbilisi will undertake.

“The economic cooperation between our countries has great potential, and our task is to contribute to its full disclosure and implementation. In this regard, the intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation has an important place in deepening and strengthening the economic ties between the sides,” Pashinyan said during remarks.

“I would like to state with satisfaction that the agenda of the session of the intergovernmental commission is quite inclusive and covers such areas of bilateral cooperation as transport, communication, energy, information technology, healthcare, tourism, agriculture, education and science, culture, environmental protection, etc. I attach importance to the full implementation of the agreements reached within the framework of the session, which will give new quality and substance to the relations between our countries,” added Pashinyan.

“I am happy to report that last year the volume of trade between the two countries exceeded $1 billion. I am sure that this is not the maximum, and in the coming years, the positive dynamics of the trade turnover will be preserved, thanks to the growth of the economies of the two countries and the deepening of interaction,” the Armenian prime minister said.

He also discussed the issue of negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, saying that he hoped that Baku will return to the negotiating table after the scheduled presidential elections in Azerbaijan next month.

Garibashvili said his country supports the peace talks between Yerevan and Baku and offered assistance in advancing the process, saying that such an effort would only increase the region’s security and prospects of peace.