ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
July 14, 2004 Wednesday

Traditional RF-Armenia coop based on concrete economic projects

By Lyudmila Yermakova

MOSCOW

The traditional Russian-Armenian cooperation is based on concrete
economic projects, Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov said at
a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan on
Wednesday.

The Armenian premier noted that the countries “have many
possibilities for cooperation” and called Russia “a strategic partner
of Armenia.” The sides stressed that cooperation is based “on Russian
investments in Armenian economy owning to which the bilateral trade
has increased by 30 percent last year.” Supplies of nuclear fuel and
equipment for the Armenian nuclear power plant, energy carriers,
rough diamonds and equipment promote the development of bilateral
cooperation.

The Armenian premier pins high hopes on Russia’s aid for involving
Armenia in the international transport corridor project North-South.
“We would like to get involved in this project by the end of this
year, and this is very important for us,” Margaryan pointed out.
Russia, Iran and India signed the agreement for implementing this
project, and other countries can join it.

Chairman of the Federation Council Committee for Economic Policy
Oganes Oganyan noted that this is very important for Russian-Armenian
relations to restore the railway communication via Georgia. The
restoration of the broken transport corridor via Abkhazia would allow
Armenia to considerably increase its GDP.

He also noted that a meeting of representatives of regions of the
countries would be held in Yerevan in the end of the year. The
previous meeting has been recently held in Samara. About 50 Russian
constituents maintain direct economic ties with Armenia including
Moscow and Moscow region, Krasnodar territory, St. Petersburg and
Tatarstan.

The Armenian prime minister said he intends to take part in
settlement of the situation in South Ossetia. Margaryan said he will
visit Georgia shortly and intends to discuss the South Ossetian issue
with the leadership of the country.