IRAN, ARMENIA INSIST ON ENERGY, TRANSPORT TIES
Mehr News Agency
April 14 2009
Iran
Tehran, 14 April: Iran and Armenia on Monday [14 April] discussed
avenues for developing ties especially in energy and transport sectors.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan arrived in Tehran on Monday at the
head of a high-ranking economic and political delegation.
Bilateral relations should be expanded in different fields including
trade, energy, and transportation, President Mahmud Ahmadinezhad
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delegations from Iran and Armenia held in the presidential office.
Ahmadinezhad said Tehran considers developing ties with Armenian as
a foreign policy priority and called for regional and international
cooperation with Yerevan.
The growing cooperation between Tehran and Yerevan must be expanded
in all areas, the two presidents stressed in their private meeting in
which they also discussed the most important regional and international
issues.
The two presidents insisted that regional and international
developments have made close cooperation between Iran and Armenia
imperative.
At a press conference on Saturday in Yerevan, Sargsyan stated that
the global economic crisis will not affect the implementation of
Tehran-Yerevan joint ventures.
Yerevan places paramount importance on proposed projects and those
under way, such as the oil pipeline, the joint railway, and the
hydroelectric power plant, Sargsyan said.
Iran and Armenia reached a primary agreement in 2007 on the
construction of a 300-kilometre oil pipeline from the Iranian city
of Tabriz to the Armenian border city of Meghri.
The two countries also reached an agreement in Yerevan on 4 April,
2009 to establish a railway that would connect the two countries to
the Black Sea as a strategic transit route.
The 470-kilometre railway would take five years to build and cost up
to 1.2 billion dollars to complete.
The two countries have also agreed to build a hydroelectric power
station on the border Aras River that will produce 800 million
kilowatts of electricity per annum.