BEGINNING OF THE MEETING WITH PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA SERZH SARGSYAN
Bocharov Ruchei
Kremlin.ru
hes/2008/09/02/1731_type82914_206075.shtml
Sept 2 2008
Russia
PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Dear Serzh Azatovich!
I am glad to see you. We meet regularly. The last time we talked in
detail was during your visit to Moscow. The visit was informative
and, in my opinion, our dialogue continues to evolve. You know its
results. There is nevertheless even more potential for growth. I
think that we will also talk about economic problems.
But I will not hide the fact that I would like to exchange opinions on
international issues and foreign policy. In just a few days the CSTO
(Collective Security Treaty Organisation) summit will begin. Armenia
will assume the presidency. I think that we can reflect on how to
organise our work and share our thoughts in this regard. Especially
since we have not seen each other since Georgia committed an aggression
against South Ossetia. Let’s talk about these difficult issues. I am
glad to see you.
PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA SERZH SARGSYAN: Thank you Dmitry
Anatolyevich. These working meetings in Sochi between the presidents of
Russia and Armenia have become a very good tradition. They represent a
very good opportunity to calmly discuss both our bilateral relations
as well as our relations in multilateral formats. So I really am
happy. All the more so since, as you just mentioned, in these coming
days Armenia will assume the presidency of the CSTO. By the way,
we have recently held Rubezh-2008, the CSTO joint command and staff
exercises, a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the CSTO, and
tomorrow in Yerevan a meeting of the CSTO Security Council Secretaries
will take place. I am therefore glad that we are meeting today.
Of course I would also like to discuss economic issues, further
strengthening and deepening our relations within the CSTO and, of
course, the situation that has developed in our region of the Caucasus.
This really is our first meeting after the events in South Ossetia,
Abkhazia and Georgia. We talked about this over the phone. I would
like to once again express my condolences with regards to the deaths
of many people – Russian citizens, peacekeepers – my regret that the
events developed the way they did, and wishes that the consequences
of this humanitarian catastrophe can be eliminated as quickly as
possible. Incidentally, in Armenia we have already been waiting for
schoolchildren from South Ossetia for two weeks now. We have prepared
educational laboratories in physics, chemistry and biology. We want
to do everything we can to help mitigate these consequences.
DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Thank you very much, Serzh Azatovich, for this
humanitarian support. As for the rest, including the consequences of
what happened, and bearing in mind our work in the CSTO, we will now
talk about this tentatively with you, but the final position of the
CSTO member states will be developed during the forthcoming summit
in Moscow.