By Emil Danielyan
Portugal’s Foreign Minister Jaime Gama ended a two-day official visit to Armenia on Wednesday, pledging his country’s support for Yerevan’s efforts to forge closer ties with European structures.
“We are very much supportive of Armenian membership of the Council of Europe and relations between Armenia and the European Union,” Gama said after talks with President Robert Kocharian and other Armenian officials. “Armenia is developing strong lines of strategic cooperation with the region and Armenia in particular. That is very new and very positive.”
The Portuguese minister spoke to reporters in Yerevan on the second leg of his tour of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. He said the regional trip is part of Lisbon’s preparations to assume the one-year rotating presidency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe which starts next January.
Gama will on Thursday meet in Baku with French, Russian and US diplomats leading the OSCE’s Minsk Group seeking a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He said he was “very well briefed” by the Armenian leaders on recent developments in the Karabakh peace process.