RUSSIA, ARMENIA TO COOPERATE IN ENERGY SPHERE

ITAR-TASS News Agency
September 25, 2007 Tuesday

Russia and Armenia have agreed to cooperate in the energy sphere.

Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov told reporters after his talks
with Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisyan in Moscow on Tuesday
that the two countries have a "clear energy programme, and a fairly
reliable relations have formed in this field".

"Armenia already has excess production of energy, in which it can
trade," Zubkov said.

The two countries’ cooperation is promising in the construction of a
nuclear power plant and the modernisation of already existing energy
reactors, he said.

"All this will be a strong stimulus for Armenia for development and
trade with other countries. The country can make big money on that."

Sarkisyan said the "biggest hindrance to cooperation is a lack of
convenient transportation communications".

"The liquidation of this limitation could strongly increase our trade,
the growth of which has been 72 percent over the first half of this
year," he said.

"Armenia is buying a lot of oil products not in Russia, but in other
places, even though raw materials are Russian."

This occurs because of a lack of transportation links.

Their development would lead to a "sharp increase in trade",
Sarkisyan said.