ZUBKOV’S FIRST FOREIGN GUEST, ARMENIA PM, ARRIVES IN MOSCOW

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
September 24, 2007 Monday 9:10 PM EST

The first foreign guest of Russia’ s new Prime Minister Victor Zubkov
– Armenia’s Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisyan – arrived for an official
visit in Moscow. His plane landed at Vnukovo-2 airport at 19:15
Moscow time.

This is not the first time Sarkisyan visits Moscow. He visited
the Russian capital more than once in the capacity of Armenia’s
defence minister to decide questions of cooperation in the defence
area and interaction in the framework of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization (CSTO). During the meeting with Viktor Zubkov,
Serzh Sarkisyan will discuss specific trends of cooperation in the
political and economic areas, Itar-Tass learned from the Russian
government’s press service.

The Armenian prime minister is to meet with Moscow Mayor Yuri
Luzhkov, with head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom)
Sergei KIriyenko, general secretary of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO) Nikolai Bordyuzha, and secretary-general of the
Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) Grigory Rapota.

Serzh Sarkisyan retains the post of head of the Armenian part of the
Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation between the
Russian Federation and Armenia. He will tell a news conference at
Itar-Tass about the results of the talks.

The Armenian delegation includes minister of transport and
communication Andranik Manukyan, minister of trade and economic
development Nerses Yerinyan, defence minister Mikael Arutyunyan,
deputy foreign minister Gegam Garibdzhanyan,

Cooperation of the two countries develops on a bilateral and
multilateral basis. Armenia, just as Russia, is for the strengthening
of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), is a member of the
Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Russia is Armenia’s main trading partner. The volume of trade between
Russia and Armenia has doubled and will exceed 0.5 billion dollars
by the end of the year, Igor Levitin said in Yerevan last week. The
head of the Russian part of the Intergovernmental Commission for
Economic Cooperation said that Russian investments into Armenia’s
economy increased. They amounted to 74 million dollars in the first
six months of 2007.

Armenia’s direct ties with Russian regions develop successfully. Some
70 subjects of the Russian Federation maintain bilateral economic
ties with Armenia.