RA Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Vahram Dumanyan received today the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation on International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoy.

RA ESCS Deputy Ministers Arthur Martirosyan and Ara Khzmalyan also participated in the meeting.

Welcoming Mikhail Shvydkoy's visit to the ESCS Ministry, Vahram Dumanyan touched upon the programs “Armenian Culture Days in Russia” and “Russian Spiritual Culture Days in Armenia”։ “As I have stated on many occasions, collaboration in the field of culture has a special impact in the bilateral interstate relations between Armenia and Russia, evidence to which are the events held continuously in both countries.”

During the meeting, new perspectives for the development of Armenian-Russian relations in the fields of education, science and culture were discussed.

The sides touched upon the cooperation in the field of education, in the context of which the ESCS Minister noted that the Armenian side attaches importance to the development of the Russian language in Armenia and is ready to discuss new initiatives within the framework of the requirements of the legislation of the Republic of Armenia. In particular, the issues of raising the efficiency of teaching Russian, improving educational programs, and textbooks, as well as the professional development and qualification of Russian language teachers were considered.

During the meeting, Vahram Dumanyan and Mikhail Shvydkoy also highlighted the importance of holding joint cultural events in the near future. In particular, the possibilities of organizing a joint concert of Armenian and Russian contemporary performers and an exhibition of young artists were discussed. The idea of holding joint events within the framework of the 120^th birth anniversary of Aram Khachaturian was also touched upon.

Mikhail Shvydkoy expressed confidence that following the example of the existing collaboration in the field of culture, cooperation in the field of science and the opportunity for experience exchange will directly contribute to the effective development and strengthening of relations between the two countries.

Other issues of mutual interest were also discussed during the meeting․