RIA Novosti, Russia
July 13 2004

FRADKOV: RUSSIA, ARMENIA CAN INCREASE MUTUAL TRADE

MOSCOW, July 13 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Prime Minister Mikhail
Fradkov believes that Russia and Armenia have the opportunities of
increasing mutual trade turnover drastically.

“We have been successfully co-operating in the economic sphere, trade
turnover has grown 30% as compared to last year, but we should take
additional measures to use the remaining opportunities – the trade
worth $200 million is not the limit,” Fradkov said in his opening
remarks at the Tuesday talks with Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Margaryan.

The Russian premier noted that Margaryan was making his first visit
to Russia and, hopefully, it will become a landmark in
Russian-Armenian relations.

According to Fradkov, this is a busy year in terms of meetings
between the Russian and Armenian leaderships. “The dialogue is
constantly filled with new contents, and I think that today’s meeting
will be made the most of,” noted the Russian premier.

Fradkov believes that today’s talks should result in specific
economic steps, agreements and efforts to solve the remaining
problems in the economic sphere. Mikhail Fradkov also remarked that
the dialogue would be maintained in such spheres as energy, gas
deliveries, high technologies, and military and technological
co-operation.