PRESIDENT SARGSYAN TO MEET RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER VLADIMIR PUTIN
ITAR-TASS
June 24 2008
Russia
Armenian President Serge Sargsyan who is arriving in Moscow for a
three-day visit will on Tuesday meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin, the Russian government’s press service said.
The agenda will be focused on strengthening trade and economic
relations that have recently become a weighty factor in developing
mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and Armenia.
Moscow is consistently consolidating its position of Yerevan’s key
foreign economic partner.
Moscow and Yerevan build and strengthen trade and economic links.
The two countries whose "reciprocal trade turnover which surpassed a
mark of 0.8 billion dollars in 2007 stand a real chance to increase
it to one billion dollars. The volume of Russian investments in the
republic’s economy is more than 1.2 billion dollars.
Bilateral investments actively contribute to forming favourable
macroeconomic trends in Armenia’s national economy and implementing
large-scale economic projects.
Russian companies are represented in promising sectors of the
Armenian economy – mining, telecommunications and banking. Major
Russian corporations such as Gazprom, Inter RAO EUS, the VTB Bank,
Russian Aluminium and Vympelkom operate in the Armenian market. The
Russian Railways Company, Alrosa and Mobile TeleSystems are joining
big and significant projects.
The Kremlin official recalled that energy is traditionally a priority
area of cooperation. Russian companies fully meet Armenia’s needs
in natural gas and fresh nuclear fuel, gas and energy projects are
implemented, new opportunities are arising for joint work in nuclear
energy, including safe operation of the Armenian nuclear power station,
geological prospecting and industrial development of uranium deposits.
The Russian president’s administration notes positive shifts in the
solution of the problem of expansion of Armenia’s foreign transport
links, especially with Russia.
New horizons are being opened as railway sea ferries between port
Kavkaz and port Poti in Georgia begin active operation and as Armenian
railways come under concession control of the Russian Railways.
Putin and Sargsyan will also discuss cultural and humanitarian aspects
of bilateral relations. The people of the two countries actively
participate in numerous projects aimed at promoting cultural and
educational ties. Successful cooperation has been developing within
the framework of the Council for humanitarian cooperation and the
Inter-State Foundation for the CIS humanitarian cooperation. The
First International festival of Russian-language radio broadcasting
held on June 20-22 had a serious response.
Apart from Putin, Serge Sargsyan will also meet his Russian opposite
number – Dmitry Medvedev.
Medvedev and Sargsyan who took office almost simultaneously (with a
difference in one month) this year have already met twice. Sargsyan
visited Moscow late in March and was in St. Petersburg early in June
to attend the informal CIS summit. The same day, the Russian leader
extended an invitation to his Armenian colleague to come to Russia
for an official visit.