GAS IS NOT A CORNER STONE OF YEREVAN-MOSCOW STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP: ARMENIAN PM
ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Nov 30 2006
"Gas is not a corner stone of our strategic partnership," said Armenian
Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan in an interview with the Moscow-based
"Kommersant" before his visit to Moscow.
Asked about the influence of the gas issue on the strategic
partnership of Russia and Armenia and the attitude of Yerevan to
the rise of the Russian gas tariff, the premier said that the term
"strategic partnership," which is used to define the two countries’
relations, is an evidence of the high level of relations in all the
spheres. The strategic partnership of Armenia and Russia is based
on close cooperation of our countries in the political, military,
trade- economic, scientific-technical, humanitarian spheres,
as well as on the common vision of the global developments, the
high level of coordination in the international arena, respect of
national interests. "I’d not like to emphasize the gas sphere as a
corner stone of our strategic partnership," the premier said. "Gas
is only one of the spheres of our energy cooperation. We effectively
cooperate in the sphere of atomic energy, thermal and hydro power
engineering etc.. Russia has its grounds to rise the gas tariff,
which are connected with many factors. At the same time, our strategic
partnership must be insured against the current political and economic
conditions and proceed from the logic of long-term interaction,"
the prime minister said.
At the same time, speaking of the possibility and the terms of the
transfer of Iran-Armenia gas pipeline under management of Gazprom,
Andranik Margaryan said that the construction of the pipeline has not
been completed so far and it is untimely speaking of its transfer
to any operator, including to Gazprom. "Armenia and Iran have been
successfully cooperating in the energy sphere for a long time already
and Iran-Armenia gas pipeline is one of the key bilateral energy
projects. It is at the stage of construction. A 39.5 km part of the
pipeline Meghri-Kajaran will open soon," the premier said.
The construction is to be completed by December 20. The company to
be exploiting the pipeline will be announced in the spring. The
pipeline is built on the funds of the Iranian party. The project
costs $30 million. AT present, the CJSC ArmRosgazprom is working on
the extension of the pipeline from Kajaran to Yerevan and on raising
the capacity of the operating gas transport net to 2.3 billion cubic
meters of gas annually.