Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with President of the Republic Vahagn Khachaturyan.

President Vahagn Khachaturyan - Mr. Prime Minister, I am glad for this meeting. We have had opportunitird to talk about the elections, of course, many times, but it is very important to speak in this official, public way, so that our assessments are also presented in this format.

First of all, I would like to congratulate all of us on the occasion of holding another national democratic election in the Republic of Armenia, because what happened in 2021, after that everyone, sorry for saying that, but in all cases they think that there will be another extraordinary election. But life has shown that when the government has clear approaches, a program, goals and implements them, political institutions and state institutions work, and we came to another regular election, which was very important.

In this regard, the 2026 elections are a new milestone in the political development of the Republic of Armenia. We must also appreciate this, and in this regard, it was also very important that our citizens listened and actively participated. Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my gratitude to all the citizens of the Republic of Armenia who actively participated in the elections and gave their votes to the political force that today constitutes the majority in the parliament. In this regard, I would like to congratulate you personally and the “Civil Contract” party, which earned the trust of our citizens and today, with the right of majority vote, a National Assembly has been formed, which will lead us in the coming five years.

But I want to draw attention to one important circumstance, because for a long time I myself was engaged in society-government relations on a purely scientific level and wanted to understand how this happens and how it is implemented. In this case, these elections were the result of this, because on the one hand it was an assessment of five years of work, and on the other hand, an assessment of the expectations that the “Civil Contract” presented to the people during this pre-election campaign.

And now the “Civil Contract” party has received votes from citizens, which will guide the Government, the government to be formed, which will direct us towards a future where we, that is, the voters, are confident that we will have a safer environment in Armenia, that we will become a truly prosperous country, and that all those programs that have been presented will become a reality.

The last circumstance, I would like to specifically mention this, is that we are truly holding elections in peaceful conditions, peace has been established in Armenia. We have managed, the authorities, I mean, in this case, the Government, and you, with your balanced foreign policy, have managed to achieve a situation where we now, in fact, no longer have any controversial issues with our neighbors that could create war situations. On the contrary, today a situation has been created where we actually have the opportunity to finally establish diplomatic relations with our neighbors, establish good neighborly relations, and be useful to each other.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan – Thank you, esteemed Mr. President, for the congratulations and I am happy about this meeting.

Yes, the regular parliamentary elections were held and the “Civil Contract” has a majority of seats in the parliament and we will form a Government. Of course, the elections were quite intense, and this was also very important for us and for me as a platform to activate direct contacts with the people, with citizens, and we also received a lot of information about the processes taking place during this time: about citizens' assessments, impressions, and opinions.

Of course, it is clear that citizens support the peace agenda, and the established peace played a significant role in the citizens' vote, and in my opinion, also, of course, school construction programs, kindergarten construction programs, the capital investments that the Government is implementing on a large scale, and of course, social reforms played a role. But, of course, as a result of the elections, we have also faced a number of problems regarding which there is anger and criticism among citizens towards the Government, towards the state, towards me personally.

Of course, these problems, first of all, relate to the sphere of justice and fairness. No matter how uncomfortable it is for me to say this, because I understand that the following question is formulated next: why have these problems not been resolved in eight years? Here, of course, I also have explanations and have clarified, including due to the constitutional immunities that we have in some judicial sectors.

But in general, of course, these elections have brought new challenges to light, the large-scale distribution of electoral bribes has revealed the vulnerabilities of our state, which we, of course, inevitably need to think about. And our response to both positive and negative phenomena that emerged during the elections is as follows: we must continue and intensify the reform process, and on the contrary, take advantage of the opportunity and restart our entire reform agenda, starting with the anti-corruption fight, with continued institutional and economic reforms. Of course, for this we have received sufficient energy and mandate from the citizens of the Republic of Armenia. And it is obvious to me that we must once again review our reform agenda, see what has not been sufficiently effective, which of our strategic tasks have not been solved, and try to make additional measures and decisions to solve these problems.

One thing is obvious: democracy is irreversible in the Republic of Armenia. By democracy, we first of all understand that power belongs to the people. Of course, it is worrying that attempts have been made to take power from the people, but it is also important that, nevertheless, these manifestations have not been able to achieve the desired results for themselves. On the contrary, they revealed the field for us, and we can act more targetedly and effectively so that similar phenomena are excluded in future elections. Of course, further improvement of the electoral system, ensuring transparency in the financing of parties, media, organizations, etc. is also a problem.

But, of course, our main pre-election message is to ensure an average annual economic growth of 6%, and we must work on it. And, to be honest, I consider it realistic, also seeing and feeling the disposition of the citizens of the Republic of Armenia to work and create prosperity through work for their own families and thus for the country, the state, which is, of course, very important.

I must say that after the elections, we are observing economic activation, which also means that the election results have also brought some enthusiasm. Although, during the elections, you know, certain problems arose related to the EAEU, nevertheless, where problems arise, these problems also bring new opportunities, including transforming a balanced and balancing foreign policy into a balanced and balancing economic policy, which we are seeing now. This does not mean that there will be no difficulties, I think that difficulties generally always and every day exist, the problem is how much we are able to manage these difficulties. I am sure that we will manage successfully, including with your support.

I would also like to thank you for your support for the activities of the Government in the previous period. In the near future, of course, we will have an opportunity to talk about the Government to be newly formed, and we must also adopt and, of course, implement the program of the newly formed Government. Thank you.