Noyan Tapan News Agency
Sept 21 2005
ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER APPRECIATES UAE’S BALANCED FOREIGN POLICY
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 21, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The delegation
headed by Doctor Sultan ben Mohammad al-Kasimi, the emir sheikh of
Sharzha and a member of the Supreme Council of the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), was received on September 20 by the RA Prime Minister
Andranik Margarian.
Expressing satisfaction at Armenia’s current relations with many Arab
states, including the UAE, the sides pointed out such achievements
registered in recent years as the activization of high-level mutual
visits, the signing of several dozens of agreements on cooperation in
various spheres, the existing mutually beneficial cooperation within
the framework of international organizations, and the holding of
regular diplomatic consultations. They underlined that the friendship
and cultural and trade links between the Armenian and Arab peoples
that have deep historical roots are greatly conducive to the
development of bilateral relations and international contacts.
A. Margarian appreciated the balanced foreign policy conducted by the
UAE at both the regional and international levels.
The interlocuters indicated education, science, culture, tourism, and
the export of agricultural products as the most perspective spheres
regarding the relations between the two countries. The Prime Minister
expressed a confidence that the current visit of Sultan al-Kasimi, as
well as Sharzha Culture Days being held now in Armenia will become a
new stimulus for developing the cooperation and promoting the
cultural, scientific and educational contacts between the two
countries and allowing their peoples to better understand each other.
A. Margarian attached importance to the establishment of the Arab
Cultural Center in Armenia, expressing gratitude to Sultan al-Kasimi
for his willingness to participate in its financing. He also thanked
the emir of Sharzha for allocating a land area in Sharzha in 1995 for
the purpose of building an Armenian church, which has been the only
one in the UAE so far.
According to the RA Government Information and PR Department, the
sides also addressed the issue of opening the UAE’s embassy in
Armenia. Noting that Armenia opened its embassy in Abu Dhabi as far
back as 2000, A. Margarian expressed a hope that the UAE’s government
will also establish its embassy in Yerevan in the near futiure,
especially as a land plot has already been allocated for this purpose
by the Armenian side.