RUSSIA POSITIVELY TREATS PROJECT OF KARS-TBILISI-BAKU RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION PASSING OVER ARMENIA

Yerevan, February 12. ArmInfo. Russia’s FM has come out with comments
concerning the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway construction project.

As the press-service of Russia’s FM reports, The Foreign Ministry
of Russia has attentively studied the text of the Declaration on
general vision of the regional cooperation, signed on February 7 in
Tbilisi by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev, the President of
Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili and the Prime Minister of Turkey Recep
Tayyip Erdogan.

It is noticeable that the Declaration contains an invitation to the
neighboring states to join the efforts of its initiators. "We shall
attentively follow the development of this initiative of our regional
partners. It is important for its implementation to promote the
versatile relations between all the countries of the region without
exception, the overcoming of barriers and separating lines. Russia,
from its part, is always open to any forms of mutually beneficial and
transparent cooperation for assurance of stability social-economic
prosperity in the Caucasus", it is said in the document. Thus,
the comment of Russia’s FM does not note the circumstance that the
new railway will be built despite the availability of Kars-Gyumri
railway, closed because of the absence of Armenia-Turkey diplomatic
relations. As the representative of the Armenian side have multiply
noted, the construction of Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway purposes political
and not economic aims, that is, to isolate Armenia from the regional
projects. Thus, the "invitation to the neighboring states to join the
efforts of its initiators" under conditions of attempts of isolating
Armenia as a strategic partner of Russia" is not comprehensible.

To remind, the USA had earlier refused to participate in this project
financing.