CONDOLEEZZA RICE PROMISED TO TIGRAN SARGSYAN
Lragir.am
19:03:23 – 22/10/2008
During the Russian-Georgian war in August the Armenian economy
sustained damage of 670 million dollars, including the lost profit,
possible investments, and other, stated Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan on October 22 during the question and answer session of
the parliament. He answered the question of Member of Parliament
Victor Dallakyan whether the Armenian government brings up this issue
during international meetings, and whether this particular issue was
discussed with the Americans when the prime minister visited the U.S.,
and the Russians, when the Russian president visited there.
"The stance of the president and the government of the republic
is that the international organizations must discuss this issue
in terms of the region rather than separate countries when the
compensation of territories or financial and technical assistance
is under consideration," Tigran Sargsyan stated. He says for this
reason both he and the foreign minister bring up the issue that
Armenia also sustained losses, and when the financial assistance
for the recovery of the damage is discussed, they must realize that
Armenia also sustained losses, and Armenia must also get assistance.
"We were reassured by our colleagues in the United States that
this issue will be discussed. This issue was discussed not only
in the meeting with Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, but also the
director of the IMF and the leadership of the World Bank with whom
we met. We will get such assistance, first of all it is going to
be technical assistance. And they promised that we will get that
assistance. Condoleezza Rice made this promise, that any technical
assistance that we will get is necessary to us, as well as we have
arrangements with the IMF and the World Bank about financial and
technical assistance," Tigran Sargsyan said.
They discussed the issue with the Russians as well, and discussed more
thoroughly. They discussed sphere by sphere what risks the August
events pose to Armenia. "The problems that we were discussing were
divided into two parts. The first, what action we should take to raise
the reliability of the economic system of Armenia, the ability to face
risks, and second, the undisrupted operation of definite enterprises
because there are over 1000 companies which are run on Russian capital,
some of which have a vital importance to our economic system. And
naturally we have discussed the problem of raising the reliability of
definite businesses, and we have definite arrangements, including on
technical and financial assistance, and we hope that the protocols
which we signed during the activities of the interstate commission,
we will be able to bring them into being together with our Russian
partners," Tigran Sargsyan stated.