Press Conference Following Russian-Armenian Talks
March 25, 2005
Yerevan
Выступление на церемонии открытия Года России в Армении
25 марта 2005 года
Ереван
PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA ROBERT KOCHARIAN: Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], ladies and gentlemen.
It gives me genuine pleasure to receive the Russian President and his delegation and to have this opportunity to discuss once again the state of our bilateral relations. I would like to note the very friendly and constructive spirit in which our meeting took place. The most difficult thing, given the extent of our bilateral relations, was to fit everything into the time we had. It seems we had rather too much on our plate, but this just goes to show what real potential for cooperation we have cooperation in our political relations, in economic issues, which we have been developing over these last two-three years, and military-technical cooperation. Now we are also trying to develop our humanitarian cooperation.
One big event that a lot of preparation has gone into is the Year of Russia in Armenia. We spoke about the need to organise a substantial programme of events in order to, over the course of the year, give Armenians a full picture of todays Russia, of what is going on there and what achievements have been made. This will concern culture, business and, indeed, the whole spectrum of our relations.
We looked specifically at the issue of our energy cooperation, an area in which we have interesting projects. Russia is very much present in this sector of our economy. We also discussed increased investment activity by Russian business in Armenia. This is something that Armenia welcomes and we will ensure the conditions for effective work here. Of course, we also exchanged views on international and regional issues. I am happy with the spirit and the results of our talks and it is with pleasure that I now hand the floor to my colleague.
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: Thank you very much. For my part, I would like to thank the President for his invitation and for the warm reception we have had. We have indeed held very substantial and useful talks on all areas of our bilateral relations and on regional and international issues. We are pleased to note that Russian-Armenian relations are showing stable development in practically all areas in which we cooperate in the economy, in politics and in the humanitarian sphere.
The opening of the Year of Russia in Armenia is the best illustration of this development. I also hope very much that all the planned events and there some 200 of them will indeed take place. I think that the number of events will turn out to be even bigger, in fact. During our talks just now, Robert Sedrakovich [Kocharian] said that the programmes organisers are suddenly getting more and more proposals from the regions. I think that the contacts and joint work carried out as part of this event will turn out to be even greater than was planned.
We agreed to continue encouraging Russian and Armenian business to take part in investment and privatisation activity. We see good prospects for developing our industrial cooperation and our work together in the energy sector and the banking sector. We also discussed the issue of transport infrastructure. You probably know that the first ferry sailed today from the port of Kavkaz to Poti with cargo on board, grain for Georgia, I think. We plan to use this route to transport goods to Armenia in the future. We hope that this route will work well in the interests of all the countries in this region and that it will attract private investment. I think this is a step in the right direction.
In our view, these kinds of steps open up broad new business opportunities, help create new jobs, generally intensify the regions economic life and can contribute to strengthening integration processes and resolving the problems that have built up here.
We gave a lot of attention to regional issues. Both our countries have an interest in stabilising the situation in the Caucasus. This means that we have to build up an atmosphere of trust and establish the kind of relations that will foster rapid social and economic development.
Of course, we also spoke about the Nagorny Karabakh problem and we will do everything we can to work with our partners to find a solution to this conflict. We hope for a successful outcome to the next round of talks between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
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