Dear friends,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I warmly welcome all the participants of the 9th Armenian-Russian Interregional Forum.

Despite the difficult situation created by the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, we decided not to postpone the working events planned for today, taking into account their importance from the perspective of the development of Armenian-Russian relations.

The interregional cooperation between Armenia and Russia plays an important role in the development of the allied strategic partnership between our countries, contributing to the further expansion of the potential of bilateral cooperation.

It's no secret that the purpose of the Forum is to establish new connections in trade, education, science, culture and a number of other fields and to revise the already established partnering relations.

Balanced development of regions is one of the priority issues for the Government of the Republic of Armenia. I am convinced that interregional horizontal contacts create an excellent opportunity for the development of the scientific and cultural life of the regions, as well as for the strengthening of friendly relations between our countries and peoples.

Although this forum is the ninth in number, and there are already established connections and partnerships at the interregional level, there are still issues that need to be raised and resolved year after year.

Every year, the forums are held under new headlines, and this year's headline "Armenian-Russian cooperation. New challenges and opportunities" is more than relevant and ambitious.

For us, the active implementation of important projects at the interregional level, which is aimed at ensuring the further growth of the national economies of our countries, strengthening their competitiveness in world markets, and introducing advanced technologies, is promising for us.

There is no doubt that in the case of using the full potential of interregional decentralized cooperation, we will manage to bring a new quality to the lives of the residents of our regions.

In this context, we can record that today's Forum is another step in the promotion of Armenian-Russian decentralized cooperation, which was formed and is developing thanks to the determination and proactiveness of the regions of both countries.

Once again, I welcome the participants of the Forum, expressing hope that tangible results will be registered on this platform, which will give new content to the existing interregional cooperation between our countries.

Thank you.