Yerevan/Mediamax/. Chairman of the Armenian National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Armen Ashotyan considers 2017 a successful year in terms of realizing the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy.

“We succeeded in pushing forward our national and state interests, strengthening and deepening Armenia’s position in all possible formats, as well as establishing relations with new partners,” Armen Ashotyan said.

According to him, 2017 was a year of strengthening security systems. Diplomacy played a very important role this year with a number of resolutions adopted by international structures and agreements signed with the Russian Federation.

“By signing a new agreement with the European Union, Armenia will move its relations with the union to a new level. I think that in this context the coming year will be remarkable with ratification of the agreement by EU member states,” he said.

Armen Ashotyan emphasized that in 2017 Armenia had developed relations with China, moved the relations with Iran and Israel to a new level, while there was still potential to be realized.

Touching upon Armenian-Turkish relations, Armen Ashotyan noted that the issue was in full political, diplomatic and economic deadlock. He reminded that starting from spring of 2018 Armenian-Turkish protocols would not be on the political agenda any more.

In 2018 the government will attach special importance to deepening relations with the Middle East countries, as well as Asian region.

Priorities for the coming year include the development of Armenian-U.S. ties, Armen Ashotyan said.