GEORGIAN, ARMENIAN PREMIERS DISCUSS TIES, SIGN COOPERATION ACCORDS

Rustavi-2 TV
Dec 9 2008
Georgia

[Presenter] The Georgian and Armenian prime ministers signed
two agreements today after the meeting of the intergovernmental
commission on Georgian-Armenian economic cooperation. One document
pertains to free trade and the other envisages cooperation in the
sphere of culture. [Georgian Prime Minister] Grigol Mgaloblishvili
and [Armenian Prime Minister] Tigran Sargsyan also discussed other
issues in bilateral relations. The Armenian prime minister paid a
one-day visit to Tbilisi today together with a governmental delegation
consisting of members of the economic team.

[Mgaloblishvili, in Georgian, addressing a joint briefing] The document
on introducing amendments in the free trade agreement between Georgia
and Armenia signed on 14 August 1995 has been signed, as has an accord
on the cultural cooperation programme between our countries between
the years 2008 and 2010.

[Sargsyan, in Armenian with Georgian translation superimposed]
Armenian-Georgian relations are very important for us. It is our
duty to boost friendly neighbouring relations between Georgia and
Armenia. There are no issues on which we cannot reach an agreement,
and the agreements that we have signed prove this.

[The two also discussed the dispute over Tbilisi’s defunct Norashen
church, which is claimed by both by the Georgian Orthodox and Armenian
Apostolic Churches, Kavkas-Press news agency reported at 1137 gmt. The
agency said Sargsyan refused to comment on the issue at the briefing,
while it quoted Mgaloblishvili as saying that he hoped the issue would
not be "politicized". Kavkas-Press also reported that both sides were
working to mobilize funds for the construction of a road connecting
Yerevan and Georgia’s Black Sea port of Batumi. Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan
reached a preliminary agreement on the project on 30 September.