YEREVAN, August 9. /ARKA/. Armenia’s foreign minister Edward Nalbandian attended today a ceremony in Yerevan marking the start of construction of a new building for the Chinese embassy in Armenia. The new embassy building is expected to be ready in 2019. Speaking at the ceremony minister Nalbandian recalled a Chinese saying that ‘the best time to plant a tree was 25 years ago; the next best time is today."



He said diplomatic relations between China and Armenia were established 25 years ago, adding that over these years the countries have done everything possible to strengthen, develop and expand their relations, including the political dialogue at the highest level as well as warm relations established between the leaders of the both countries. In his words, construction of the new building of the Chinese embassy in Armenia is another symbolic step towards strengthening of cooperation.



In turn, assistant foreign minister Li Huilai noted that the remoteness of the two countries from each other does not affect the friendship between their peoples. "Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the Chinese-Armenian relations have been constantly developing in a healthy and stable way, political mutual trust is being strengthened, cooperation in the trade-economic, cultural-humanitarian and other areas is expanding," Huilai stressed.



According to him, in 2015, during the first state visit of Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan to China, the two heads of state outlined strategic guidelines for bilateral relations for the near future. "China, as a good friend, brother and reliable partner of Armenia, is ready to further develop long-term friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation, confidently promote Chinese-Armenian relations and all-round cooperation," Huilai said.



He added that the current building of the Chinese embassy in Armenia has been used since the beginning of the 1990s, and today it can no longer satisfy the needs of the dynamic development of bilateral relations between the states.



"The new premises of the Chinese embassy with an area of about 40 thousand square meters will become one of the largest embassies in Armenia, which fully demonstrates the desire of the Chinese and Armenian sides to develop broader and all-round cooperation with each other," Huilai said. -0-





16:05 09.08.2017