CANBERRA: Members of the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU) accompanied Member of the Republic of Armenia National Assembly, Armen Rustamyan on a trip to Canberra for a series of meetings with Australian lawmakers.
Rustamyan and the ANC-AU delegation met with Armenian-Australian Parliamentarian, Tim Wilson, as well as the Chair, Vice-Chair and other members of the newly-formed Parliamentary Friendship Group of Armenia.
Chair of the Friendship Group, Trent Zimmerman, Vice-Chair Joel Fitzgibbon and MP for the largest Armenian-populated electorate in Australia, John Alexander discussed potential for cooperation between Armenia and Australia with Rustamyan, who is also a representative for Armenia in the Council of Europe.
Issues including Armenian genocide recognition, the rights to self-determination for the Armenians of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh were discussed during the meetings.
ANC-AU Managing Director, Vache Kahramanian, who was part of the delegation said the meetings were productive.
"We need greater dialogue between political leaders in Australia and Armenia to improve cooperation between the two nations, and the visit of Mr. Rustamyan presented an opportunity to begin that process," said Kahramanian.