Russia remained top priority in Armenian foreign policy in 2004, ministry
says

Arminfo
12 Jan 05

YEREVAN

The development and expansion of relations with the Russian Federation
continued to be the highest priority in Armenia’s foreign policy in
2004, says the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s report on the results of
last year.

The document says that Armenian-Russian cooperation developed and
expanded in the military-political, trade, economic and humanitarian
spheres last year, and within the CIS and the Collective Security
Treaty Organization.

Top-level meetings were held as part of three working visits of the
Armenian president to Russia, an official visit of Armenian Prime
Minister Andranik Markaryan, and visits to Armenia by the chairmen of
both houses of the Russian parliament, Sergey Mironov and Boris
Gryzlov. Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan paid an official
visit to Moscow in July. During the negotiations held the sides spoke
about bilateral cooperation at the international level and ways of
resolving the Nagornyy Karabakh problem.

Issues of economic partnership were discussed at a meeting of the
Armenian-Russian intergovernmental commission at the end of the
year. In an effort to expand the economic partnership between legal
entities and individuals of the two countries, an Armenian-Russian
association of business cooperation was set up and over 100 companies
from both countries have already joined it.

A wide range of military and military-economic issues was discussed
during a visit to Armenia by Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov
and during the first meeting of the Armenian-Russian intergovernmental
commission for military and technical cooperation in September.

As part of a cooperation programme between the two countries’ culture
ministries, days of Russian culture were held in Armenia in April
2004, while a week of Armenian films was held in Moscow in March. The
agreement was reached to declare 2005 the year of Russia in Armenia
and 2006 the year of Armenia in Russia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress