MEDVEDEV TO DISCUSS COOPERATION WITH TWO EX-SOVIET LEADERS

RIA Novosti
April 20, 2010
MOSCOW

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will hold on Tuesday two separate
meetings with leaders of Armenia and Uzbekistan to discuss a wide
range of cooperation issues.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov arrived in Russia on a two-day official
visit to Monday, and already had an informal meeting with Medvedev
in Barvikha. The official program of the visit will begin on Tuesday.

"The signing of a range of bilateral documents intended to strengthen
cooperation between the two states in various spheres is expected to
take place during the talks," an Uzbek presidential spokesman has said.

Russia is one of Uzbekistan’s major trade partners and accounts for
20% of the country’s foreign trade. Bilateral trade stood at some
$4.5 billion in 2009.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan will pay a brief working visit to
Russia on Tuesday on an invitation from the Russian president.

"The talks will touch upon a wide range of topical issues of
Russian-Armenian partnership," a Kremlin source said.

Russia is Armenia’s main trade partner and, despite a decrease in
bilateral trade which stood at $723.2 million in 2009, remains the
country’s main foreign investor. Russian investments account for
almost 60% of the country’s foreign investment.

Armenia has almost no proven reserves of oil or natural gas and
currently imports nearly all of it from Russia.

"Russian companies completely meet Armenia’s demand of natural gas and
nuclear fuel supplies. Large joint projects in gas and nuclear energy
spheres are being carried out successfully," a Kremlin source said.

Earlier in April, Russia and Armenia have approved the charter of
a joint venture to build a new unit of the Metsamor Nuclear Power
Plant, with a capacity of approximately 1,000 mW. The construction
is scheduled to begin in early 2011, and new unit is to be put into
operation until 2017.

The talks are also expected to discuss the issue of Nagorny Karabakh,
an ethnically Armenian region in Azerbaijan, which has had de facto
independence since a brutal war between the South Caucasus neighbors
in the early 1990s.

Russia, along with the U.S. and France comprises the Minsk Group
which mediates Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place in the region since the war in
early 1990s, which claimed more than 30,000 lives on both sides.