Public Television of Armenia
Jan 14 2010

Armenian leader, Russian official discuss Karabakh, ties

[Presenter] Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan received Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov today. Welcoming the high-ranking official’s
visit to our country, Sargsyan noted with satisfaction that in the
year 2009 Armenian-Russian strategic cooperation had replenished with
new qualitative elements, a high level of intensive political dialogue
had maintained and economic, cultural and humanitarian ties had
strengthened.

[Sargsyan, speaking in Russian at a meeting with Lavrov, with Armenian
voiceover] Armenia will continue making efforts to expand bilateral
relations. I would like to express gratitude to the Russian Federation
for great efforts made both for the settlement of the Nagornyy
Karabakh issue and normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. We are
happy to welcome you in Yerevan yet another time.

[Lavrov, speaking at the meeting in Russian with Armenian voiceover]
Firstly, Mr President, I would like to pass the warmest regards of
President of the Russian Federation Dmitriy Medvedev. He hopes that
intensive mutually-reliable partnership dialogue, that exists between
our two countries and which has made progress in the past year, will
continue this year as well. We also highly assess the level of
strategic partnership between our countries and cooperation in all
spheres. At the meeting with the Armenian foreign minister we
discussed in detail the course of implementation of agreements
achieved between the Russian and the Armenian presidents.

[Presenter over video of the meeting] President Sargsyan and the
Russian foreign minister had a meaningful conversation on dynamically
developing Armenian-Russian relations and cooperation in commercial,
economic and humanitarian spheres. They attached importance to further
development of bilateral contractual and legal basis of relations and
noted that new agreements would create new opportunities for mutual
cooperation and would strengthen ties even further. They also
discussed different issues concerning economic cooperation. The work
of Armenian-Russian intergovernmental commission was touched upon, and
importance was attached to effective operation of Armenian enterprises
under Russian management. President Sargsyan and Lavrov also exchanged
views on developments in the South Caucasus region, in particular the
process of the Nagornyy Karabakh settlement and normalization of
relations between Armenia and Turkey. Lavrov said that at the 13
January news conference [in Moscow] with the Turkish prime minister,
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yet another time voiced the
position of official Moscow, emphasizing that these two processes
[Karabakh settlement and normalization of Armenian-Turkish ties] are
not linked to each other, that it is difficult to solve each of these
problems even taken separately and it is not correct to link them to
each other. Lavrov also emphasized that Russia is interested both in
the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations and the settlement of
the Nagornyy Karabakh issue.

[translated from Armenian]

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress