ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
August 20, 2004 Friday 12:03 AM Eastern Time

Russia, Armenia ponder ways to normalize situation in Caucasus

By Mikhail Petrov

SOCHI

The presidents of Russia and Armenia will hold bilateral talks in
Sochi on Friday, specifically on coordination of the efforts of the
two countries seeking to normalize the situation in the North
Caucasus. The two countries have consistently called for the peaceful
settlement of the regional problems and are seriously concerned over
the threats of destabilization in the South Caucasus in the wake of
the aggravation of the situation in South Ossetia.

Vladimir Putin and Robert Kocharyan will exchange views on ways to
unlock the potential of multilateral cooperation and the use of the
already existing regional mechanisms and the CIS peacekeeping
potentialities for this purpose.

The presidents also plan to consider further interaction within the
frame of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Eurasian
Economic Community, in which Armenia has been granted the observer
status.

The two countries are determined to take steps on both the bilateral
and multilateral basis in combating terrorism in all its forms and
reinforce their political resolve with effective practical
cooperation of their law enforcement agencies and special services.

Putin and Kocharyan will also focus on realization of bilateral
understandings in the economic and other fields. They will examine
the status of mutual trade and investment cooperation, the
fulfillment of the property-for-debt agreement, as well as
interaction in the fields of energy and transport.