Armenian leader urges regional cooperation at Kazakh summit

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
18 Jun 04

[Presenter] A summit of the leaders of the member countries of the
Collective Security Treaty Organization [CSTO] is taking place in
Astana [Kazakhstan]. Armenian President Robert Kocharyan is also taking
part in the summit. President Kocharyan today delivered a speech
in the Kazakh capital during a forum called Eurasian Integration:
Contemporary Development Tendencies and Globalization Challenges of
the Eurasian Economic Community. He stated that the Eurasian Economic
Community promotes the re-establishment of severed ties and creates
a new level of cooperation, which will have a positive influence
on the development pace of the countries. He noted that for speedy
development, it is necessary to ensure not only domestic and economic
stability, but also security.

[Correspondent Lilit Setrakyan from Astana] This is the second day of
the visit to Astana by the presidents of Armenia, Russia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. This morning they took part
in an international forum of the Eurasian Economic Community, which
discussed this organization’s preliminary tasks. Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan established this organization –
the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEc) – in 2000.

To recap, Armenia is participating in EurAsEc as an observer. President
Kocharyan welcomed the forum’s work and noted that the Eurasian
Economic Community promotes the re-establishment of severed ties
and creates a new level of cooperation. Robert Kocharyan stressed
that Eurasia is a crossroads of civilizations, cultures and state
traditions. This is a serious factor in intergovernmental relations,
which opens new horizons and at the same time, requires efforts to
bring different countries’ economies closer to each other.

President Kocharyan also touched upon Armenia’s economic situation
and stated that like most of the Eurasian countries, our country
has already overcome the difficulties of the transition period
thanks to the current political and economic reforms, which places
new tasks and obligations on the countries. One of them is regional
cooperation. President Kocharyan stressed the importance of regional
organizations’ integration, first of all in the sphere of energy and
transport communications.

The Armenian president noted that the conflicts in the South Caucasus
are an obstacle to the development of the region as a whole and its
countries. Regional cooperation and integration processes could provide
regional security, stability and a settlement to current conflicts.

The leaders of the six countries continued to discuss Eurasian issues
after the summit during a session of the security council. Regional
and international security and world issues were on the agenda. The
leaders of the member countries will also discuss cooperation in
the foreign political, military and military-technical spheres. The
presidents’ joint news conference is expected after the session. The
delegation led by Robert Kocharyan will return to Yerevan tonight.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress