ZOOM: The Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU) has hosted politicians from Australia and Armenia in an Inter-Parliamentary Dialogue to discuss the impacts of the COVID-19 coronavirus on the two countries, and share their experiences as representatives dealing with the crisis.
The Dialogue, which took place virtually using Zoom, featured the co-convenors of the Federal Australia-Armenia Inter-Parliamentary Union, Mr. Trent Zimmerman MP and The Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon MP. Zimmerman is Chair of Australia's House of Representatives Committee on Health, while Shadow Agriculture Minister Fitzgibbon is Australia's former Defence Minister.
A similar union exists in Armenia's National Assembly, called the Armenia-Australia Parliamentary Friendship Group, and its chair Mr. Arman Boshyan was joined by Lusine Badalyan, Hovhannes Igityan and the Assyrian-Armenian minority's representative MP, Mr. Arsen Mikhaylov. The Dialogue was moderated by ANC-AU Executive Director, Haig Kayserian.
"During these times of self-isolation, even for the politicians of the two countries, the Armenian National Committee of Australia saw a unique opportunity to bring the elected political leaders of the two countries together to continue an Inter-Parliamentary dialogue which began during our historic delegation last year," Kayserian said.
"It was also a unique opportunity considering it was one of those rare occasions that both Australia and Armenia were dealing with the same core political issue, that is the battle against COVID-19 in their respective communities and around the world."
Zimmerman and Fitzgibbon provided the latest numbers associated with COVID-19 in Australia, with the Armenian representatives doing the same from an Armenian point of view.
They answered one another's questions, which included exchanging facts and thoughts about the several social and health measures that the respective countries' governments had undertaken in dealing with this crisis.
There were a lengthy exchanges about the impact of COVID-19 on the two economies, while views were exchanged about privacy concerns relating to mobile phone applications both countries are testing to track and trace contact made by infected patients.
Zimmerman wrote on his Facebook page: "Sharing our experience of responding to coronavirus with other nations is very important. So today Joel Fitzgibbon MP and I - as co-chairs of the parliamentary friends of Armenia - joined with four of our counterparts in Armenia via Zoom for a very valuable discussion on how we are managing the health and economic impacts. Thanks to the Armenian National Committee of Australia for organising!"
Fitzgibbon was also ecstatic with the outcome of this exchange.
Jokingly, he made reference to Zimmerman's use of the Mount Ararat background in a tweet: "I couldn’t compete with the backdrop deployed by @TrentZimmerman for our hook-up with MPs from the Republic of Armenia today. @ANCaustralia #ararat #friendship..."
Both sets of parliamentarians agreed to resume the dialogue, with an important action items coming from the meeting for both sets of participants.
Kayserian added: "We thank all participants for accepting our invitation and resuming a dialogue that we feel will ultimately benefit both nations, something that is a priority for the Armenian-Australian community we represent in public affairs."
