Thursday, 21 August 2014
Armenia, Georgia Prime Ministers Discuss Bilateral Relations
Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan received a Georgian government delegation led by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili who is paying an official visit to Armenia.
Following a private meeting held between the two heads of governments, the delegations met in enlarged format to discuss a broad range of issues stemming from the friendly relations between the two countries.
Welcoming the guests, Hovik Abrahamyan said the relations with Georgia are of special importance to Armenia.
“Our two countries' friendship has passed the test of time and provides a solid groundwork for building on our bilateral relations in the spirit of cooperation and mutual trust. The development of relations with Georgia is among the main priorities of our political agenda. The Government of Armenia will do its utmost to upgrade and boost bilateral relations,” Hovik Abrahamyan said.
Thankful for invitation, Irakli Garibashvili said that either Georgia was interested in deepening and expanding relationship with Armenia. The Georgian Premier noted that the bilateral trade turnover rose 42% in the first half of this year as compared to the same period last year.
“We are confident that there is great potential for the further development of economic ties,” Irakli Garibashvili said.
The two Premiers agreed to hold an Armenian-Georgian business forum in the near future in Tbilisi in order to promote business linkages between the two countries.
The heads of government undertook to give a new impetus to the activities of the Armenian-Georgian intergovernmental commission, which last met in 2011.
Coming down to the ongoing integration processes, Hovik Abrahamyan reminded that Armenia was taking steps to join the Eurasian Economic Union. At the same time, he noted that our country will keep on cooperating actively with the EU in different fields in a bid to boost the process of reforms.
Hovik Abrahamyan stressed that Armenia’s membership in the EEU may not affect the existing economic relations with Georgia. According to him, Armenia and Georgia could benefit from the fact of adhering to different integration units.
In turn, Irakli Garibashvili expressed confidence that the two countries’ being part of different economic associations will not affect the Armenian-Georgian economic, political and cultural cooperation. The Prime Minister of Georgia said that membership in various economic organizations should be used for the benefit of both countries. According to Irakli Garibashvili, this might set a good example for the international community.
The interlocutors said to be pleased with the pace of interagency cooperation in transport and energy sectors. Turning to the landslide of the Upper Lars border checkpoint, the Prime Minister expressed the hope that the checkpoint would be re-commissioned as shortly as possible.
The Georgian Premier assured that the landslide’s consequences, as well as the accident on a stretch of the gas pipeline will be eliminated within 2-3 days and they will soon resume regular operations.
The two prime ministers agreed to continue with the modernization of Bagratashen, Bavra and Gogavan border checkpoints, as well as to proceed with the construction of a bridge at Bagratashen-Sadakhlo border post.
Touching upon the Armenian-Georgian cooperation in the energy sector, the two countries’ energy ministers reported that an agreement had been reached to build a 500 MW power transmission line between Armenia and Georgia instead of a 400MW line as decided earlier that will provide better conditions for the export and transit of electricity. In particular, after the completion of the first stage of the project, the transfer capacity will be 300 MW instead of the current 200 megawatts.
The Government of Armenia is negotiating with the German KfW bank to complete the second phase in 2018, resulting in 700 megawatts of power transfer capacity.
The parties next discussed the launch of Yerevan-Tbilisi and Yerevan-Batumi regular flights, as well as issues related to cooperation in the field of culture.
At the end of the meeting, Irakli Garibashvili invited Hovik Abrahamyan to visit Georgia at his convenience.
