GEORGIAN, ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS AGREE REGIONAL MOTORWAY PROJECT
Kavkas Press
Sept 30 2008
Georgia
Tbilisi, 30 September: Georgia and Armenia will form a consortium
to work on the construction of a direct road leading from Armenia
to Ajaria [on Georgia’s Black Sea coast]. Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan and his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili made this
announcement today at a joint briefing in Tbilisi.
"Tbilisi and Yerevan are so close to each other, that we should be
a continuation of each other. You know how many holidaymakers visit
Georgia from Armenia in summer – this is why we took the decision to
build a road that will on the one hand link Armenia and Ajaria and
on the other hand link Tbilisi with the mountainous part of Ajaria,"
Saakashvili said.
He also pointed out that money will be raised abroad in order to
build the road, which will connect Georgia, Armenia and Turkey and
in so doing "become a regional project that will make it possible to
increase the volume of cargo transported by road".
"This will once and for all bring all the countries of the region
closer together and serve to develop them all," he said.
"The project will of course change the economic geography of the
region. If our consortium raises enough money within two months to
begin building the road, then this meeting will have been of use,"
the Georgian president said.
For his part, Sargsyan stressed that he was "happy about the
implementation of this project". "This is very important for the
development of our peoples. Georgia’s freedom is important for
Armenia, as 70 per cent of our foreign trade is done through Georgian
territory. And many of our brothers and sisters live in Georgia,"
he said.