Armenian speaker, visiting Russian counterpart discuss joint programmes
Arminfo
15 Dec 04
YEREVAN
Speaker of the Russian State Duma Boris Gryzlov, who is paying an
official visit Armenia, met Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly
Artur Bagdasaryan today.
During the meeting, which was also attended by the chairmen of the
Armenian parliament’s standing commissions, heads of parliamentary
factions and groups, Artur Bagdasaryan and Boris Gryzlov touched on
prospects for the development of interstate relations, the press
service of the Armenian National Assembly has told Arminfo.
Special emphasis was placed on ways of boosting the effectiveness of
the CIS Parliamentary Assembly (PA), cooperation in preparing model
laws for the Commonwealth’s PA, namely in developing a legal framework
to combat terrorism, implement joint programmes in the areas of
science, education and culture, expand regional relations, cooperate
within the framework of international organizations, etc.
The Armenian parliament speaker said Armenia was attaching special
importance to the role of the Russian Federation in settling the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk
Group. Bagdasaryan pointed to the importance of launching the five
Armenian enterprises handed over to Russia as part of the Property for
Debt agreement, adding that people were waiting for the creation of
jobs and investment opportunities, which is stipulated by the
agreement. The sides also pointed to the importance of resuming the
railway and ferryboat link between the two countries.
In reply, Boris Gryzlov said everything would be done to implement the
Property for Debt agreement, noting that the allocation of financial
resources to that end was envisaged in next year’s Russian state
budget. The State Duma speaker promised that the issue of restoring
the railway and ferryboat link would be tabled as soon as he returned
to Moscow. Gryzlov also shared with his Armenian counterparts the
results of the State Duma’s work this year. He said relations between
Armenia and the Russian Federation were friendly and described Armenia
as Russia’s outpost in the South Caucasus.
It was also said that the next meeting of the Russian-Armenian
intergovernmental commission due in Moscow in late December would
discuss issues raised today.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress