SOLUTIONS HAVE BEEN FOUND

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[04:04 pm] 20 October, 2008

The sitting of the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission
on Issues of Economic Cooperation between the Republic of Armenia
and the Russian Federation has kicked off at the "Metropol" Hotel
today. Before the sitting, the Co-Chairs of the Commission – Prime
Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan and Minister of Transport
of Russia Igor Levitin – had a tete-a-tete meeting. Later, the
Co-Chairs participated in the opening of the 10th plenary sitting
of the Intergovernmental Commission. In his speech Co-Chair of the
Commission, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said, in part:

"The first sitting of the Commission that took place in Yerevan on
July 1st, 1997, marked a new stage of economic cooperation between
our countries. The following years showed that we have an opportunity
to both solve the existing problems and issues, and determine the
perspectives of our long-term cooperation and discover new directions.

Today we can state with satisfaction that stable traditions of
activity of the Intergovernmental Commission have been shaped. The
Co-Chairs hold periodic meetings, which is important for coordinating
the activity of the Commission between the sittings.

I’m sure that today’s sitting will become the logical continuation of
the way passed over the past ten years and will provide an opportunity
to solve issues of reciprocal interest.

The current 10th sitting of the Commission is important also because
it takes place on the eve of the visit of the President of Russia
Dmirtry Medvedev to Armenia, and I hope that the results of our work
will be positively assessed by the leaders of our countries."

Co-Chairs of the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental commission, Russian
Transport Minister Igor Levitin first thanked for warm welcome and
noted: "The economic cooperation between our countries continues
developing and it’s natural to hope that the bilateral commodity
turnover may reach $1 billion this year. It’s not the upper limit,
we have more ambitious programs in the long-term perspective, and I’d
like to say that the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission
fairly plays a great role in the cooperation of our economic and
business sectors.

I would like to thank experts of both Russian and Armenian sides for
the productive activity of our Commission, as well as representatives
of businesses, who help develop relations between our countries."

The participants of the sitting discussed and adopted decisions on
the process of accomplishment of the protocol of the 9th sitting
of the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Issues of
Economic Cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and the Russian
Federation held on September 14, 2007, the trade-economic relations
between the two countries, the current state and perspectives of the
contractual-legal basis, cooperation in the fields of fuel and energy
system, transport and ecology.

At the end of the sitting Tigran Sargsyan and Igor Levitin signed
the Protocol of the 10th sitting of the Intergovernmental Commission,
following which the Co-Chairs gave a joint press conference.