Syrian Arab News Agency, Syria
June 18 2009
Syrian and Armenian presidents hold talks in Yerevan
["Presidents Al-Assad And Sargsian: Removing Obstacles That Hinder" –
SANA headline] Yerevan, 18 June: Presidents Bashar al-Assad [al-Asad]
and Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia on Thursday [18 June] underlined the
necessity of removing all obstacles which hinder developing the
economic ties and investments between the two countries.
"The Syrian-Armenian relation, which dates back to one hundred years,
has many common interests and faith in a unique image," President
al-Assad said in a speech at the opening of the Syrian-Armenian
business forum. "There are different forms of investments. Beginning
from trade, which is the simplest and less complicated stage. In the
second stage comes the joint investments in hotels, factories and
others and those need a good investment environment in the two
countries and need facilitations offering banking facilitations,
agreements and other procedures. But what we are in need now is
aviation and direct contact between Syria and Armenia," President
al-Assad said.
The president added that one of the obstacles which hinder developing
relations with Armenia is a land transport route through Turkey,
saying, "So, our discussions with President Sargsian yesterday
concentrated on the way of improving relation between Turkey and
Armenia in the interest of Armenia, Syria and Turkey."
President Al-Assad pointed out to the important project connecting the
Mediterranean with the Arab Gulf through Syria and Iraq as well as the
launching of the first trip through railways, saying " as I understood
from President Sargsian, there is a railway project through Iran into
the Gulf, so it will be connected to Iraq, and there will be a natural
route between Syria and Armenia during the coming years."
The president called on the companies in of both countries to
contribute to the great projects to be executed in the other country,
saying: "We in Syria think of a railway that connects the Red Sea
through al-Aqaba Gulf in Jordan to the Mediterranean in Syria." "Syria
will be an obligatory route for goods during the coming years, and I
ask you, as businessmen, to think how could we benefit from the
geographic site and how could we connect the geographic site of
Armenia and Syria," President Al-Assad said.
President Al-Assad called on the Syrian-Armenian Joint Committee that
will convene a meeting in Yerevan next September to study those ideas
and discuss the obstacles and the possible steps, in addition to
exempting businessmen form visas as an additional facilitation for
movement between the two countries.
For his part, President Sargsian called for increasing activity
between businessmen and laying down the legislative and legal basis
for cooperation in order to achieve the aspired goals, expressing
confidence the authorities in both countries are ready to prepare this
bas is. "Talks with President al-Assad concentrated on the issues that
help deepen trade and economic cooperation," President Sargsian said,
hailing the signed agreements and their importance in developing trade
exchange and encouraging investments in both countries.
More than 150 businessmen from Syria and Armenia participated in the
Forum. A number of meetings between businessmen in the two countries
have been held in order to explore opportunities of bilateral
cooperation and possibilities of trade exchange.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
