ECONOMIC TIES MAJOR FACTOR FOR STRENGTHENING OF RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN RELATIONS IN 2008

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.03.2009 20:09 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In 2008 Russian-Armenian partnership relations
tended to develop dynamically. The election processes of 2008 in
neither country had any full effect on bilateral political contacts,
as is said in the RF Foreign Ministry review of 2008 on the activities
of Diplomatic and Domestic Politics.

Within the framework of promoting a top-level dialogue, the presidents
of both countries had six meetings, the country leaders paid mutual
working visits. The critical development of the situation in the
Caucasus proved the importance of strengthening Armenian-Russian
strategic cooperation in order to guarantee stability and security
in the region, as is recorded in the RF Foreign Ministry act.

According to the review, military, humanitarian, and inter-regional
contacts improved in 2008. Economic relations become the leading
factor in promoting all kinds of Russian-Armenian relationship in 2008.

The commodity turnover between RF and RA increased by 19.9% in
January-October, 2008 and made $749,2m. "Russia became the main
counter-agent in Armenia. The accumulated amount of capital investment
in the Economy of Armenia, which by the end of the year was exceeded
by 1,8 billion dollars, proved Russia’s leading status among the
foreign investors. "

The joint gas and energy projects, the collaboration in the field
of atomic energy were successfully carried out. "Russia and Armenia
collaborated effectively on the issues of reforms and on the effective
functioning of CIS, on strengthening the coordination activities
within the framework of OCST," as is said in the RA Foreign Ministry
review of activities of 2008.