Armenia will be assuming chairmanship in the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Thursday, May 16 for the next 6 months. In this connection, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian left for Strasbourg to attend CoE foreign ministers meeting.

As the official stated earlier, at a joint meeting with CoE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland, during its chairmanship in the CoE Ministers Committee Armenia will adhere to the principles of human rights protection, rule of law and democracy.

He also stressed the importance of implementation of the 2012-2014 Armenia-CoE Action Plan, also noting that CoE chief was briefed on recent developments in Karabakh conflict settlement, as well as steps undertaken by Armenia and international community to solve the problem.

According to Mr Nalbandian, during its chairmanship, Armenia is planning to hold a number of important events involving parliaments, constitutional courts, foreign ministers, as well as those related to interreligious and cross-cultural dialogue, youth policies, struggle against xenophobia. A forum of mayors of the CoE states’ capitals is on agenda. Also, visits of a number of high-ranking Armenian officials, as well as the Armenian President to Strasbourg are planned.