NO ISSUE IN RELATIONS BETWEEN ARMENIA AND GEORGIA SHOULD GIVE CAUSE FOR POLITICAL SPECULATION, GEORGIAN PRIME MINISTER SAYS

Noyan Tapan

Dec 9, 2008

TBILISI, DECEMBER 9, NOYAN TAPAN. The governmental delegation headed
by the RA prime minister Tigran Sargsyan on December 9 left for
the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi for a one-day working visit
in order to take part in the 7th sitting of the Armenian-Georgian
intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation.

According to the RA Government Information and PR Department, prior
to the sitting T. Sargsyan had a tete-a-tete talk with the Georgian
prime minister Grigol Mgaloblishvili.

Then the prime ministers of the two countries met with the working
group of the intergovernmental commission and participated in the
regular sitting of the commission, during which the sides discussed
the implementation process of the decisions taken at the previous
sitting held on October 15, 2007, issues related to the current state
and development prospects of the legal and contractual basis between
the sides, the long-term directions of developing the trade and
economic cooperation, as well as issues of cooperation in transport,
agriculture, energy, health care and social security, education and
culture, environmental protection, and tourism. The demarcation process
of the state border between Armenia and Georgia was also discussed.

The prime ministers of two countries said that the good-neighbourly
relations between Armenia and Georgia are developing successfully. They
expressed a hope that the 7th sitting of the intergovernmental
commission will become an additional stimulus for deepening and
extending these relations. Both sides attached importance to the work
on fulfilment of the agreements reached between the presidents of the
two countries during the visit of Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan
to Georgia this year.

T. Sargsyan and G. Mgaloblishvili were unanimous in the opinion that
it is necessary to conduct an open, transparent and comprehensible
policy, underlining that it should be visible to the great powers
having interests in the region. They expressed confidence that
the documents to be signed will give new impetus to the interstate
relations, noting that the governments of Armenia and Georgia will
do painstaking work in the near future with the aim of implementing
the agreements reached. According to them, during their tete-a-tete
talk, they addressed issues of mutual interest and those of regional
importance. The problem of Armenian Norashen Surb Astvatsatsin Church
was discussed as well. It was pointed out that the centuries-old
friendly links unify the Armenian and Georgian Churches. The
prime ministers underlined the importance of the initiative of
the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church regarding creation
of a joint commission to discuss and solve the problems related
to Norashen Surb Astvatsatsin Church and other churches through a
dialog. In this connection the Georgian prime minister said that no
issue in the relations between the two countries should give cause
for political speculation.

The ceremony of signing joint documents took place at the conclusion
of the sitting of the intergovernmental commission. The two prime
ministers signed the protocol summarizing the results of the 7th
sitting of the Armenian-Georgian intergovernmental commission for
economic cooperation. The Armenian minister of economy Nerses Yeritsian
and the Georgian minister of economic development Ekaterine Sharashidze
signed the protocol on making amendments to the Agreement on Free
Trade between the Governments of Georgia and Armenia of August 14,
1995. The Armenian deputy minister of culture Gagik Gyurjian and the
Georgian deputy minister of culture, monument preservation and sports
David Kiria signed the 2008-2010 Program on Cooperation between the
two ministries.

It was decided to hold the next – 8th sitting of the intergovernmental
commission in Yerevan in 2009. The date and agenda will be determined
later.

Then T. Sargsyan and G. Mgaloblishvili gave a joint press conference.

During the visit the prime minister Tigran Sargsyan met with the
Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, visited the Armenian embassy
in Georgia, the Armenian Norashen Surb Astvatsatsin Church, and the
Pantheon of Prominent Armenian Writers and Public Figures.