Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Armenia, Russia Sign Long-Term Bilateral Cooperation Program
Following the meeting of the Armenian-Russian intergovernmental commission, a long-term cooperation agreement through 2020 was signed between the two countries.
During a press conference held after meeting, commission co-chairs Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and RF Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov highlighted the importance of the program and noted that the two governments will henceforth be working toward making it a reality.
Tigran Sargsyan reminded that bilateral trade turnover is growing and has already exceeded the mark of one billion U.S. dollars.
“Bilateral cooperation has a solid groundwork. It offers vast development opportunities. From this perspective, we attach great importance to the long-term cooperation program and its implementation,” Tigran Sargsyan pointed out.
Answering a question on Armenia’s accession to the Customs Union, the Prime Minister said his position has not changed since and is consistent with the view of the Russian authorities: “At the August 2012 meeting of the two heads of State, President Vladimir Putin stated as follows: Given the fact that Armenia has no common borders with the Customs Union, we have to work out a scheme for Armenia’s integration with the Customs Union. Based on the above, the Presidents instructed us to develop a toolkit taking into account Armenia’s peculiarities, including the lack of common borders. The Presidents had a working group established by the end of the year. We worked intensively with the Eurasian Economic Commission on cooperation issues. As a result, a cooperation instrument was signed by the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of the Eurasian Economic Commission. This made it possible to significantly reduce the transactional costs conditioned by the lack of common borders. The tools now applicable facilitate Armenia’s integration with the Customs Union,” the Prime Minister said, adding that the Presidents’ decision stemmed from the above. At this point, the two governments are working to implement the decision.
In conclusion, the speakers advised that active efforts are underway to open a branch of the Moscow State University in Yerevan.
