Talks with Armenia constructive – Georgian premier

Noyan Tapan news agency
12 Mar 05

Yerevan, 12 March: Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli, who
has paid a two-day working visit to Armenia, left for Georgia on 12
March. Asked by journalists at Zvartnots airport, Noghaideli pointed
out that the bilateral negotiations were constructive.

He said that at present, relations between the two countries are at a
level when not only current problems, but also programmes for the next
three-five years can be discussed. The Georgian prime minister thinks
that with this aim, the intergovernmental commission will soon hold a
meeting in Yerevan. Beginning from the next week, the two countries’
delegations will start working meetings, during which they will touch
on the issues that were discussed, including cooperation in the sphere
of energy.

Noghaideli said that this is the first meeting when representatives
of the Armenian Energy Ministry had no complaints about the Georgian
side. “As far as I remember, when I was a deputy and then finance
minister, the Armenian side had complaints during our meetings. We
can discuss not only the problems we had last year, but also the
tasks of further cooperation,” he said.

The Georgian prime minister pointed out that the commodity turnover
between the two countries had doubled over the last year, which,
however, cannot be called satisfactory for the time being. Although
the issue of railway tariffs was not discussed these days, the current
tariffs are nevertheless quite normal for the commodity turnover,
the prime minister thinks.

Noghaideli also assured the journalists that nothing is threatening
Armenian cultural-historical monuments in Georgia.

It must be noted that Noghaideli visited the Holy See of Echmiadzin
and met Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II before his departure.