On the morning of March 27, 2015, Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Republic of Armenia, along with a delegation from Armenia, visited PKU. Other members in the presidential delegation included Edward Nalbandian, Foreign Minister of Armenia, Artur Javadyan, Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia, Gagik Khachatryan, Minister of Finance, Karen Chshmaritian, Minister of Economy, and Armen Sargsyan, Ambassador to China. Zhu Shanlu, Chairman of the Peking University Council and Lin Jianhua, President of PKU received the guests at the Yingjie Overseas Exchange Center, while officers from Ministry of Education and Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also present.
After the meeting with PKU leaders at the Yingjie Overseas Exchange Center, the presidential delegation convened at the Moonlight Hall for the following event. During this event, President Lin first expressed his warm welcome to the honorable guests and then he conferred President Sargsyan with the title of honorary professor of Peking University. After the presentation of the honorary title, students from PKU presented President Sargsyan with a bouquet. Afterwards, President Lin invited President Sargsyan to deliver a speech on the foreign policy of the Republic of Armenia.
President Sargsyan opened his speech by touching on the past Sino-Armenia relationship. He mentioned that China was one of the first countries to build diplomatic relations with Armenia, and then he explained that Armenians have a special respect for the profundity of Chinese culture and the great success that the Chinese government has had in achieving prosperity.
In the latter part of the speech, President Sargsyan talked about current cooperation between China and Armenia and the friendly support that Chinese government and Chinese people have given his county, and he also explained that cooperation with China in almost all areas is a priority for his country.
Written by: Gustav Kuan-Wei PAN
