Regular summits-impetus to friendly Russia-Armenia relations
By Alexandra Urusova, Yelena Starkova
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 12, 2004 Wednesday
MOSCOW, May 13 — Regular top-level contacts “give an additional
impetus to deepening traditionally close and friendly relations between
Russia and Armenia”, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander
Yakovenko in connection with the Moscow visit by Armenian President
Robert Kocharyan, starting on Thursday. He arrives in the Russian
capital on a working visit at the invitation of Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
The sides will center on “the state of and prospects for consolidating
economic relations, implementation of the ‘property for debts’
agreement as well as cooperation in the sphere of the power industry,
transport and investments”, Yakovenko noted.
According to the spokesman, “the Russian interests are impressively
represented in the financial system and the basic industries of the
real sector of the Armenian economy”. “The sides give much attention
to settling the transport problem, for instance, by resumption
of railway traffic between Russia and Armenia across Georgia,”
Yakovenko continued.
“Attention is also given to coordination of efforts of the two
countries to revitalize the situation in the Caucasus, to reveal the
potential of multilateral cooperation, including in the framework
of “the Caucasian Four” as well as to prevent new and to settle
old conflicts, including Nagorno-Karabakh,” the Russian diplomat
emphasized.
“Russia and Armenia,” he added, “are fully determined, on a bilateral
and multilateral basis, to take purposeful moves in struggle against
terrorism in all its manifestations.” “Political cooperation in
the anti-terrorist direction is buttressed by efficient practical
cooperation of law enforcement bodies and secret services of the two
countries,” Yakovenko went on to say.
According to the spokesman, much attention is given to cooperation
within the CIS, the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the
Eurasian Economic Community where Armenia was granted the status of
an observer.
The press service of the Armenian president told Tass that Kocharyan
also plans meetings with board chairman of the Russian mammoth
Gazprom gas company Alexei Miller and president of the ITERA Group
Igor Makarov during his three-day visit to Moscow.
These companies supply Armenia with Russian gas. Besides, the
Armenian president will meet members of the organizing committee
of the Association of Russian-Armenian Business Cooperation. The
organization is being created to help boost economic relations between
the two countries.