EDWARD NALBANDIAN: ARMENIA IS AMONG COUNTRIES EXTREMELY INTERESTED IN STABLE GEORGIA

Noyan Tapan
Feb 20, 2009

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 20, NOYAN TAPAN. The joint press conference of the
Armenian and Georgian Foreign Ministers Edward Nalbandian and Grigol
Vashadze was dedicated to summing up the results of the Georgian
Foreign Ministry delegation’s visit to Yerevan.

The Ministers said that issues regarding bilateral political, economic,
and cultural cooperation were discussed during the meeting. In
particular, they had discussed processes of fulfillment of agreements
reached as a result of Armenian and Georgian Presidents’ meeting
last September and as a result of Armenian-Georgian Intergovernmental
Commission’s December 2008 sitting.

"We attach much importance to economic cooperation with
Georgia. Armenia is among the countries extremely interested in a
stable Georgia. And not because the most part of our commodity flow
goes through Georgia and our diaspora of more than 300 thousand
people lives there, but because our two countries are connected
by centuries-old brotherhood and traditional cooperation ties,"
Nalbandian stated.

It was reported that Days of Georgian Culture will be held in Armenia
in March, at that, the very Georgian Foreign Minister Vashadze will
head the Georgian delegation. And Edward Nalbandian will visit Tbilisi
in April at the invitation of his Georgian counterpart.

With regard to the latest developments in the Samtskhe-Javakheti
Georgian region populated with Armenians Vashadze stated
that two citizens of Georgia were arrested for the crime they
committed. According to him, Georgians could be also arrested in their
place: national belonging plays no role here. "There is no problem
of Javakheti, like in the whole Georgia there are socio-economic
problems there. That region is one of the regions of Georgia, and
the latter is in an extremely hard situation after the war with Russia.

If someone thinks that people live better in Kutaisi, it is not
so, on the contrary, they often live worse," the Georgian Foreign
Minister stated.

According to him, just the process of Armenians’ integration in Georgia
goes on not so quickly as the Georgian Armenians and the government
of Georgia would like it. "Georgian government’s goal is to protect
the rights of all peoples living in Georgia," Grigol Vashadze stated.

Both Ministers assured that there are no problems the two countries’
governments could not solve in cooperation.