On June 25.2008, RA Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan received the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to the Republic of Armenia Serge Smessow.
At the beginning of the meeting the Ambassador congratulated Seyran Ohanyan on assuming the Defense Minister’s office, expressing hope that the bilateral cooperation will further develop during the latter’s tenure in office.

Speaking about the gradually deepening bilateral relations, the Minister said the centuries-old friendship between Armenia and France has no precedent today. Seyran Ohanyan expressed confidence that it is necessary to develop the relations especially in the field of peacekeeping, stating that the possible participation of France in the military exercises to be held in Armenia in autumn would contribute to the development of cooperation between the Armed Forces of the two countries. Turning to the 2008 military cooperation program, the parties discussed issues related to military medicine and teaching of languages, expressing hope that the active communication between the two countries will result in signing of an agreement on military cooperation. For his part, Serge Smessow noted that he highly appreciates Armenia’s warm attitude towards his country, stressing the high level of bilateral relations. At the end of the meeting that parties discussed the current state of bilateral relations and the perspectives of deepening those. They exchanged views on a number of issues of regional security and stability. Turning to the settlement of the Karabakh issue, the interlocutors stressed the importance of its resolution in a peaceful way, underlining that being an OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair country, France should maintain parity in its military cooperation with Armenia and Azerbaijan.