ARKA News Agency
Sept 14 2005
SAINT PETERSBURG TO MAKE WORTHY CONTRIBUTION TO ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN
COOPERATION: VALENTINA MATVIENKO
YEREVAN, September 14. /ARKA/. Saint Petersburg will do its best to
make its worthy contribution to Armenian-Russian cooperation, Saint
Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko said at the opening of a
concert “Musical meetings in Yerevan” as part of the Year of Russia
and Days of Saint Petersburg in Yerevan. “We have once more been
convinced of the strength of our historical and spiritual ties, of
how much we need each other and of having not only great historical
past, but also great future. And the Armenian and Russian peoples are
interested in this,” Matvienko said. “We have arrived here as a large
delegation, which includes representatives of business, financial,
educational, cultural communities, with a serious intention to
re-establish the contacts that connected our peoples, establish
active economic cooperation, restore cultural, educational and
spiritual ties,” she said. According to Matvienko, Russian people
have a very good attitude to Armenia, and no historical events have
changed this attitude. “We have one faith, our history has very much
in common, we have always had mutual respect, love, warm relations
between people, which is the basis for bilateral cooperation,” she
said.
In his turn, Mayor of Yerevan Yervand Zakharyan pointed out that
Armenia and Russia have established strong economic, trade and
political relations. He stressed that the Mayors of Yerevan and Saint
Petersburg have reached an arrangement to prepare and sign a specific
cooperation program between the two cities before the end of 2005.
Zakharyan expressed hope that such events as Days of Saint Petersburg
in Yerevan will become a good tradition and afford much pleasure to
the residents. P.T. -0–
