Category: 2019

Lynn Tracy, the newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to our country, presented his credentials to the President of the Republic of Armenia, Armen Sarkissian.

Handing over the credentials, Ambassador Tracy noted: “I proudly present my credentials to the president and state that I am ready to work with the Armenian government to deepen and strengthen Armenian-American relations and support Armenia’s democratic agenda.”

Congratulating the ambassador on his assumption of office, President Sargsyan said that Armenia highly values ​​the Armenian-American friendship and partnership based on common values ​​and mutual respect and trust. The president expressed his belief that the newly appointed ambassador will contribute his rich experience and knowledge to the further development of multi-sectoral cooperation between the two countries.

During the conversation following the ceremony of presentation of credentials, the parties noted that they will continue joint efforts to contribute to the most effective use of the respectable potential existing in the relations between the two countries.

Ruben Vardanyan’s press office responded to the investigation made on the hetq.am website yesterday. The message released by the office says:

Commenting on the publications related to Mr. Vardanyan and the activities of the “Troika Dialog” group of companies, we can say the following.

“Troika Dialog” group of companies has operated in accordance with the principles of transparency and international financial reporting standards throughout its existence. Moreover, it actively participated in the formation of the civilized financial market of Russia.

After selling “Troika Dialog” to Sberbank in 2012, Mr. Vardanyan has devoted a lot of time and money to the business. And Mr. Vardanyan’s family took on the obligation to invest most of their wealth in charity projects back in the 2000s.

More detailed comments will be given after a thorough study of the facts mentioned in the publications.

Let’s remind that according to yesterday’s publication, as a result of studying the leaked documents from the Lithuanian bank, a money laundering mechanism was revealed. Through that scheme, Russian political and criminal circles legalized their finances using forged signatures of Armenian expatriate workers and businessmen.

Together with 20 partners of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), “Hetk” investigated a network worth $8.8 billion, which operated under the control of Troika Dialogue, a private investment bank of Russian-based businessman and well-known philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan.

More than 60,000 financial documents leaked from the Lithuanian “Ūkio bankas” appeared to journalists. The investigation was named “Troika Laundromat”.

The upcoming meeting with the President of Azerbaijan Aliyev will also be dedicated to discussions on the negotiation format. This was stated by RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at a joint press conference with European Union Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn.

In particular, the journalist was interested in whether there are any new highlights from the meetings with Aliyev that can be published. 

“You know, our contacts were of an informal nature, and in fact we did not talk about the ways and nuances of the settlement of the Karabakh issue at all, therefore there is a slight misunderstanding in your question, saying that there is something to add, we have yet to start discussing.

As I said that I already said in Tehran, our upcoming meeting will be dedicated to discussions about the format, because we believe, and our position has not changed, that for the effective settlement of the issue, it is necessary to first of all create an effective format, the purpose of which is to ensure the participation of Nagorno Karabakh in the negotiation process,” said Pashinyan.

Johannes Hahn also believes that the current format of the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict should be preserved.

“During the term of office of the new RA prime minister, it became possible to hold new meetings, including between foreign ministers. That’s already progress. As for the EU support for the settlement, we believe that the existing format should be preserved, not something new created. We need to discuss how we can support cooperation between countries in various fields. There should be opportunities, I think that the conditions in the region are quite favorable to further improve the regional situation. We should support the settlement of the conflict, but only at the request of the parties, the parties know how to work,” Han said.

On March 5, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan received the delegation led by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Armenia Jonathan Lacote, which included the advisor on nuclear energy, Alexander Gorbachev, representative of the French Nuclear Energy Commission, and representatives of the French ORANO (formerly AREVA) company.

Acting Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources Garegin Baghramyan was also present at the meeting.

The interlocutors discussed the possibilities of deepening the Armenian-French cooperation in the field of nuclear energy. In this regard, the Deputy Prime Minister said that Armenia values ​​the role of the Metsamor nuclear power plant in the country’s energy production capacity and will continue to develop nuclear energy. He also added that the issues of building a new nuclear power plant in the future and involving foreign partners in this project are now being studied.

The parties agreed to study the possibilities of cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, particularly in the directions of production, research and development, professional exchanges and educational programs.

European Union Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Commissioner Johannes Hahn is of the opinion that support programs for Armenia should be different and implemented in parallel.

Han announced this on March 5 in Brussels, at a joint press conference with RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who were there on a working visit.

To the journalist’s question that the second phase of the revolution in Armenia has begun, the economic revolution, and what are the edges of cooperation the commissioner sees with Armenia, taking into account the principle of “more for more”, Yohannes Hahn answered: “We are now together, with our team, considering which are the most urgent programs, but there must be different programs, we cannot just do one thing and ignore the others, we have to carry it out in parallel together.”

Citing Nikol Pashinyan, the commissioner detailed that Armenia presented a road map with 13 specific programs a week ago, and the parties agreed that great attention should be paid to economic development, that is, support to the business sector. According to Han, this goal is served by one of the already created results, within the framework of which Armenian banks can provide loans to small and medium-sized enterprises and micro-companies in local currency with European financial means, in order to eliminate exchange rate risks.

The Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Union believes that, in addition to economic support, Armenia needs to be provided with infrastructure development support. “That is why connectivity is very important in our agenda, which requires investments in the development of roads and railways. And it also requires functioning electrical grids, power transmission, export,” explained Johannes Hahn, adding that Energy efficiency is another issue that creates many jobs not so much in industry as in small and medium-sized enterprises.