On a working visit to New Zealand, Ambassador of Armenia Areg Hovhannisian (residence in Tokyo, Japan) met with the Minister for Trade, Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand Hon Todd McClay in Wellington. Ambassador Hovhannisian presented the business environment of Armenia, its priorities and promising directions.
Ambassador Hovhannisian pointed to intensive and innovative agriculture, winemaking, renewable energy, food processing and pharmaceutics as promising fields for bilateral cooperation. In particular, the Ambassador highlighted the role and importance of the IT sector for the development of relations between geographically distant countries.
The Ambassador also presented the “Crossroads of Peace” project, which, in case of certain geopolitical developments, could be beneficial for New Zealand for exporting goods to Europe.
The parties agreed to continue discussions.
On the same day, Ambassador Hovhannisian had meetings at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of New Zealand.
In a meeting with Ant Simpson, the Acting Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs for Multilateral and Legal Group, the parties commended the ongoing cooperation on international platforms, discussed the possibilities of mutual support to each other’s candidacies in international organizations in the near future.
The Ambassador highlighted the importance of Armenia’s accession to the Rome Statute, stressed that Azerbaijan consistently ignores the decisions of the International Court of Justice, the admonitions of other international actors and to this day continues to widely use hate speech, generate threats, as well as carry out large-scale activities against the Armenian cultural heritage in the forcibly depopulated Artsakh. Hence, the Ambassador emphasized the role of UNESCO in adequately assessing the dire situation and preventing further destructions.
In a meeting with the Unit Manager of Europe Division Dom Walter-France, the opportunities for the development of bilateral relations were discussed, particularly the economic ties, promotion of tourism, IT and digitalization, innovative approaches to agriculture, exchange of experience in the field of renewable energy.
The Ambassador presented the developments in the peace negotiations with Azerbaijan and the obstacles caused by the latter, the continues hate speech, large-scale activities aimed at the destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage.
Ambassador Hovhannisian also presented the “Crossroads of Peace” initiative and expressed hope that its implementation will contribute to the development of mutually beneficial cooperation between the countries of the region.
The New Zealand side, for its part, has expressed readiness to contribute to the development of various fields in bilateral relations.
