Friday, 1 October 2004
Today RA Prime Minister A. Margaryan has received Serguey Mironov, President of the upper chamber of the Federal Duma of Russia.
Welcoming the high guest and the members of the delegation led by Mr. Mironov, the Prime Minister has stressed the importance of high-level contacts in respect of further strengthening and developing Armenian-Russian bilateral relationship. For his part, Mr. Mironov has evoked with satisfaction the outcome of the meetings held during the first official visit of the Head of the Armenian Government to the Russian Federation in July 2004. Both sides have agreed that the existing cooperation between the two governments would have been very hard to sustain if not assisted by parliamentarians from the two sides and expressed the hope that any joint efforts by the governments would enjoy full support with the legislators in future, too. They mentioned that both the Russian parliamentarians and their Armenian counterparts are holding active discussions over the documents relating to bilateral cooperation, which is another evidence of the high level of strategic partnership between Russia and Armenia. Though satisfied with the established legal framework, which numbers over 170 interstate and intergovernmental legal instruments, the two sides have emphasized the necessity of updating the previous agreements and signing new ones to streamline issues of mutual concern relating to reciprocal promotion and protection of investment, free trade arrangements, customs policies, emergency situations, public welfare and in a good number of other fields. Also Mrs A. Margaryan and S. Mironov expressed their satisfaction with the fact that the Armenian-Russian interparliamentarian commission kept backing the joint efforts by the two governments in boosting bilateral economic cooperation, including through business conferences held under the sponsorship of the Federal Duma. At the same time, it was stressed that many possibilities still remained unavailed. With reference to Armenia's involvement in regional economic and transportation projects, A. Margaryan noted that Armenia was looking forward to be supported by Russian parliamentarians in such matters as relating to the lifting of the blockade around Armenia, the re-opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, the re-commissioning of the Abkhazian stretch of Tbilisi-Gyumri-Kars railway, as well as Armenia's inclusion in the North-South transport corridor project and other issues vital to Armenia.
Asked by the guests, Mr. A. Margaryan briefed them on the range of priority actions to take with the view of further expanding bilateral economic cooperation. Among them he has mentioned a speedy refurbishment and re-commissionning of Armenian enterprises forwarded to Russia under the Property for Debt program, increasing the level of foreign investment from Russia into the Armenian economy, activating the existing collaboration in the area of small and medium-size entrepreneurship promotion, in agriculture, tourism, energy and a number of other fields. The President of the Federal Council of the State Duma advised that the Russian side of the Armenian-Russian interparliamentarian commission on economic affairs was scheduled to arrive in Armenia on October 13 to discuss the full range of issues bearing on bilateral economic cooperation.
In reiterating his condolences to the President of the Federal Council of the State Duma on the tragic events of Beslan, Mr. A. Margaryan mentioned that shortly after the tragedy had happened Armenia sent humanitarian assistance to those suffered in the above events. The Prime Minister further offered his feeling of deep sympathy to the Russian leadership on behalf of the Armenian authorities. With reference to the tragedy-related closure of the Russian-Georgian border, the Armenian Prime Minister has expressed his deep concern about that fact by noting that thereby Armenia was going to face serious bottlenecks in terms of cross-border freight and passenger traffic. Mr. Mironov said he expected Armenia to understand the underlying causes for this urgent measure and expressed the hope that the situation would be addressed in the shortest possible delay.
The interlocutors have also touched upon the promotion of direct ties of cooperation between economic entities on both sides.
In closing, Mrs A. Margaryan and S. Mironov have once again assured each other of the willingness on the part of respective authorities to enhance and further expand cooperation between Armenia and Russia in all of the fields of mutual interest.
