Armenian parliament speaker Hovik Abrahamyan met Wednesday, June 19, with Herwig Van Staa, the President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, who is in Yerevan to attend a gathering of the Congress bureau.

Welcoming the guest, Mr. Abrahamyan hailed the role of the Congress in the development of the local self-government system in Armenia and said that steps are being taken to strengthen this cooperation.

Mr. Van Staa, in turn, noted that the Congress has been collaborating with Armenia for a long time already and appreciated the country's efforts for the improvement of the local self-government institutions.

The two men also referred to a number of regional issues, including the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and Armenian-Turkish relations.

“There is no alternative to the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh problem,” Mr. Van Staa said.