ROMANIAN PRESIDENT PAYS OFFICIAL VISIT TO ARMENIA 4-5 OCTOBER

Rompres news agency, Bucharest,
3 Oct 06

Bucharest, 3 October: Romanian President Traian Basescu over 4-5
October will pay an official visit in the Republic of Armenia at
the invitation of his counterpart Robert Kocharian, the Presidential
Administration informs in a release on Tuesday [3 October].

The visit is part of Romania’s policy to spread, as a future
EU member, the European policies in the Black Sea region and the
Southern Caucasus.

During his visit, President Basescu will hold official talks with
his Armenian counterpart and sign some bilateral legal documents:
the Common Political Declaration of the two presidents, the Agreement
Memorandum between the Romanian and Armenian Foreign Affairs Ministries
on European and Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, the governmental programme
on cooperation in the cultural, educational and scientific fields
over 2006-2009, the protocol amending the governmental agreement on
promotion and mutual protection of investments as well as the protocol
amending the governmental agreement on trade and economic relations,
technical and scientific cooperation.

Traian Basescu will also meet Armenian Prime Minister Andranyk Margayan
and His Beatitude Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of
All Armenians.

The head of state will also meet students and professors with
the State University in Yerevan, on which occasion he will tackle
Romania’s experience during the European integration process, the
release mentions.

Romania and the Republic of Armenia established diplomatic relations
on 17 December 1991.

The Armenian embassy to Romania was opened on 18 April 1994, and five
years later Romania opened its embassy to Armenia, on 9 February
1999. On 20 September 1994, the presidents of the two countries,
Levon Ter-Petrosian and Ion Iliescu, during the visit of the Armenian
president to Bucharest, signed the Treaty on Friendship and Cooperation
Relations between the two countries.

The bilateral trade relations between Romania and Armenia are based
on the Agreement between Romania’s Government and the Government of
the Republic of Armenia on Trade and Economic Relations and Technical
and Scientific Cooperation, on the Agreement between the Governments
of Romania and of the Republic of Armenia on Promotion and Mutual
Protection of Investments, on the Convention on Avoiding Double
Taxation and on other documents of an economic character.

The Romanian-Armenian Joint Commission on Economic, Technical and
Scientific Cooperation was established for strengthening the bilateral
economic cooperation, and held its first session in April 2000,
during the visit paid to Bucharest by President Robert Kocharian. The
ministers of transports are joint chairmen of the commission. Bilateral
trade in 2005 amounted to 6.1m dollars, of which 6.06m dollars being
exports.