ZUBKOV, SARKISYAN TO DISCUSS POLIT, ECON COOPERATION TUE
ITAR-TASS News Agency
September 25, 2007 Tuesday
Russia’s new Head of Government Viktor Zubkov is to meet with his
first foreign guest — Armenia’s Prime Minister Serge Sarkisyan —
here on Tuesday.
Sarkisyan arrived in Moscow on Monday night for the first time as
Premier although he had visited the Russian capital repeatedly before
as Defence Minister.
A Russian government press service official has told Itar-Tass that
Zubkov and Sarkisyan are to discuss concrete areas of political and
economic cooperation.
Also on Tuesday, the Armenian Premier is expected to meet with
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, RosAtom (Federal Agency for Nuclear Power)
chief Sergei Kiriyenko, Nikolai Bordyuzha, Secretary-General of the
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and Grigory Rapota,
Secretary-General of the Eurasian Economic Community.
Sarkisyan has retained the post of the leader of the Armenian side
of the Russia-Armenia intergovernmental commission for economic
cooperation. He is to relate the results of the upcoming talks at a
news conference, which is to be held at Itar-Tass.
The Armenian delegation includes Andranik Manukyan, Minister of
Transport and Communications, Nerses Yeripyan, Minister of Trade
and Economic Development, Mikael Arutyunyan, Minister of Defence,
and Gegam Garibdzhanyan, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Cooperation between the two countries develops on bilateral and
multilateral bases. Armenia, just like Russia, comes out in favour of
strengthening the Commonwealth of Independent States and is a member
of the CSTO.
Russia is Armenia’s main trading partner. Reciprocal trade turnover
has doubled and may run at over $500 million towards the year’s end,
Igor Levitin said in Yerevan last week. The leader of the Russian side
of the intergovernmental commission, stated that Russian investments
in the Armenian economy had grown as well to run at $74 million in
the first half of the year.
Armenia’s direct trade contacts with Russia’s regions develop
successfully: about 70 regions of the Russian Federation maintain
bilateral economic contacts with it.