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Democratic Artsakh can never be a part of authoritarian Azerbaijan, Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly Ara Babloyan said today at the meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Armenia Eiji Taguchi, who is completing his diplomatic mission in the country.

“The people of Artsakh see their future in this way – independent and democratic. There can be no alternative to it,” he stressed.

Mr Babloyan highly appreciated the balanced position of Japan in the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the parliament's press service said. 

In his turn, the ambassador stressed that Japan is for the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict within the format of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

Eiji Taguchi says the parliament of his country will ratify the bilateral investment agreement between Armenia and Japan in the near future, expressing hope that the Armenian parliament will also ratify it in a short period of time. 

Ara Babloyan highlighted that the Armenian-Japanese relations are anchored on friendship and mutual trust. He touched upon the development of bilateral parliamentary relations, in this context underlining the active contacts and mutual visits of the Friendship Groups functioning in the legislative bodies.

The parliament speaker expressed his gratitude to the government of Japan for implementing assistance programs in Armenia for years, urging the ambassador to further enhance that cooperation with the country’s government.

Ara Babloyan documented that Armenia is a state on the path of democracy, as evidenced by the April events in the country, when the police and demonstrators displayed tolerant and respectful behaviour towards each other.