The Government of the Republic of Armenia

During the private talks held with the head of Russia's government in anticipation of an extended meeting, Serzh Sargsyan said to have kept warm memories of their Moscow meeting of last September. He expressed confidence that Mr. Zubkov's present visit will help boost the bilateral relations and further strengthen the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries. Victor Zubkov conveyed greetings on behalf of the President of Russian Federation and thanked Serzh Sargsyan for the invitation and a warm welcome.

During the extended meeting, which followed the prime ministers' private talks and was attended by delegations representing the two governments, a broad range of issues covering different areas of bilateral cooperation have been discussed.

Pleased with the pace of bilateral cooperation and the dynamics of interaction between Armenia and Russia, Serzh Sargsyan and Victor Zubkov stressed that this was promoted by both friendly and business-like relations entertained by the two Presidents. The interlocutors singled out the achievements made in the economic field in terms of increased trade turnover and growth of Russian investments into the economy of Armenia. At the same time, they noted that the economic cooperation had an important development potential. According to the Armenian Prime Minister, the high level of political dialog between the two countries called for greater efforts in the economic field. In this context, the efficiency of the Armenian-Russian intergovernmental commission has been emphasized on either side. It was reported that as recently as on January 21, the co-chairs of said commission came together to examine the status of the decisions passed at the 9th session. By virtue of these decisions, commodity turnover between Armenia and Russia grew by about 65% to USD 700 million in January-November, 2007, as compared to the same period of 2006. The head of the government of Russia expressed confidence that this figure could be taken to USD 1 billion in the near future. Russian co-chair of the intergovernmental commission Igor Levitin stated that Armenia offered favorable legislative environment for doing business in the country due to which Russian equity was sufficiently active on the Armenian market. It was mentioned that in the period between January-October 2007, Russian investments into Armenia's economy rose to USD 175.9 million, of which USD 101.6 million constituted direct investment. Inter-bank cooperation has been active, too: