The Government of the Republic of Armenia

Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan and Russian Premier Dmitry Medvedev, who is paying an official visit to our country, met with the representatives of mass media to sum up their private and expanded talks held earlier today. Each of them answered one question posed by Armenian and Russian media outlets respectively.

RA Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan – Dear Dmitry Anatolevich, I would like to share with you my view of negotiations. First of all, we summed up the results of our recent work. We noted that the relations between our countries have been dynamically developing year by year; we have stated increase in figures and, at the same time, emphasized that we have great opportunities for growth.

We have discussed possibilities for implementing both joint investment and other projects aimed at deepening bilateral cooperation. Documents were signed today that will definitely help develop and strengthen our cooperation.

We emphasized the important role played by the intergovernmental commission throughout the process of economic cooperation, highlighting the fact that frequent, periodic and constructive meetings have been held recently at interagency and horizontal levels, which can add momentum to those measures we have agreed upon.

Wrapping up my statement, I would like to note that we are satisfied with the work done so far. I also want to emphasize that we have always had constructive, saturated and friendly talks. I am convinced that what we have agreed upon will be implemented in the near future, and we will move forward.

RF Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev – Dear Karen Wilhelmovich, dear colleagues, dear mass media representatives, my counterpart proved to be a man of few words. I will try to be even more concise in my remarks, but it does not mean that we have had wrong talks. On the contrary, everything was fine: we could make sure that ties are developing in all directions.

By the way, we are marking the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries, and I will not talk about the background of our relations as they cover a longer period. Russia remains the leading foreign economic partner of Armenia. Bilateral trade turnover increased in both 2016 and 2017 at a fairly good rate, as we have already mentioned.

All our joint ventures are working in the proposed areas - high technologies, energy, construction and telecommunications. We have outlined plans of what to do in the coming years. Cooperation in the humanitarian sphere is also developing; we are going to hold Armenian Culture Days in Russia this November. I hope that a number of new projects in the humanitarian sphere will also be implemented. I would like to sincerely thank my counterpart for the wonderful conditions of work and hospitality offered to us.

Question - Russia 1 TV Company: Dmitry Anatolevich, the agricultural cooperation between the two countries has recently been talked about much in mass media. Particularly, it is question of large investments, development of machine-tractor systems, supply of Armenian farm products to Russia, and making investments in the country’s greenhouse sector. Question: how does this system of relationship develop and what is its potential?
RF Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev - Development is good. Obviously, here we have solid grounds for cooperation. Armenian fruits, juices, cheeses and a variety of fruit and vegetable canned products are now commonplace in our country, and they are of exceptional quality. Armenian apricot is a separate topic. I have just learned from my counterpart that there is also “late apricot” that is now being collected, so the apricot story is to be continued.

Therefore, we have great potential here, especially given the fact that while developing its own agriculture, our country is still interested in the supply of fruit and vegetable products from a number of foreign countries, which of course may help boost cooperation with our friends and partners in the Eurasian Union and Armenia, in particular.

We may not yet have such large and progressive projects in terms of greenhouse farming and processing, and we should get involved in it, but we are ready to continue to work on the supply of farming tools, or simply the export of our agricultural machinery. Here we have a number of options both in terms of support and concerning the roadmap that we have elaborated as part of our program of developing a network of state-of-the-art tractor stations that can work in Armenia.

So, I think we have great opportunities to go this way and expand in other destinations. We discussed today a number of issues related not only to agriculture, but also to energy. I want to say that a decision has been made, which may be of crucial importance for economic activity in the Republic of Armenia. The point is that next year the special tariff will be maintained for Armenia, despite the fact that we had agreed to consider some other standards. I think this will help improve the overall economic and investment situation in Armenia.

Question - Armenpress news agency: My question is addressed to the two prime ministers. The free economic zone will start functioning in Meghri on the Armenian-Iranian border as early as in the month of November. How do you view the prospects for involvement of EAEU countries and, in particular, Russian businesses and investments in that project?

RA Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan – As I mentioned, today’s agenda was quite hectic and constructive. We discussed this matter, too. Moreover, as I have already said, we held extensive talks at interdepartmental and per-sector levels and we have already prepared a number of projects.

We believe that the free economic zone is a good platform for Russian capital and businesses interested in the Iranian market. Moreover, we are very open and ready to cooperate not only over the deployment of Russian businesses in the Free Economic Zone, but also on the launch of investment cooperation. I do believe that in the near future the ongoing extensive talks will be finalized for practical use.

RF Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev - We have good relations with Iran, whether you like it or not. Therefore, we are ready to get involved if our EAEU friends and partners set up a free economic zone with Iran, including by inviting there Russian businesses.

Our partners have offered us other types of co-investment. We will think of how to finalize them, perhaps through the use of Russia’s development institutions, such as the Direct Investment Fund, Vnesheconombank and the Rostexportcenter. The outcome is what matters here.