Regional coop should promote to implement Russo-Armenian agts
By Lyudmila Yermakova

ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 14, 2004 Friday

SAMARA, May 14 — Cooperation between regions must help implement
agreements reached by Russian and Armenian presidents, believe the
participants in a conference on the interregional Russian-Armenian
cooperation that opened in the Russian city of Samara on Friday.

The conducting of Samara interregional conference simultaneously with
the meeting of the two presidents in Moscow has a particular meaning,
Sergei Mironov, the Speaker of the Federation Council, or the upper
house of Russian parliament, told reporters.

“The fact that President Robert Kocharyan went to Moscow at the same
time as Armenian parliament speaker, Artur Bagdasarian, went to Samara,
one of Russia’s 89 constituent territories, testifies to the stability
of our relations,” Mironov said.

He is sure that the Armenian president’s visit to Moscow and his
dialogue with Vladimir Putin would promote a solution of the problems
witnessed by regions of the Caucasus.

Armenia is “our strategic partner, and our countries have a traditional
special relationship,” Mironov said.

During the conference, Russian and Armenian parliamentarians signed
a number of documents on inter-parliamentary cooperation, as well
as on interaction between the Samara Region and some regions of the
Republic of Armenia.

“We’ve agreed in principle on building up friendship between our
regions,” Artur Bagdasarian said.

He stressed Armenia’s position of the most stable partner that Russia
has in the Caucasus.

Bagdasarian said it was important to augment mutual understanding
at the high level with specific actions and contacts between regions
and with cooperation between regional populations.

Governor of the Samara Region, Konstantin Titov, shared that opinion,
saying that the partnership between the regions “is the most effective
form of cooperation between states”.

The framework agreements that the sides signed Friday “are a serious
basis of the multifaceted Russian-Armenian cooperation,” Titov said.
“The authorities should set up conditions for economy and business
development, essential for implementation of political accords.”