Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan is in Moscow, capital of the Russian Federation, on a two-day official visit. Prime Ministers Dmitry Medvedev and Karen Karapetyan made a statement for mass media summarizing the results of their meeting. Below is the full text of the statements made by the Prime Ministers of Armenia and Russia.
Head of RF Government Dmitry Medvedev:
Dear Karen Wilhelmovich,
Mass Media Representatives,
Colleagues,
The meetings with our Armenian friends were constructive, saturated and friendly as always. This attitude of mind is just what helps us solve different problems, especially as this year we are marking 25 years of diplomatic relations between our States while friendship between our peoples can be measured by centuries.
As you may know, Russia is Armenia’s key foreign economic partner. Its share amounts to 25% of Armenia’s foreign trade, and despite the complicated global setting, as we mentioned with my colleague, the indicators of bilateral trade turnover prove quite encouraging. Last year this figure was above USD 1 billion, but what matters most is that the turnover has been on the rise despite the fall in the prices of hydrocarbon fuel and specific goods supplied by our countries.
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Another fact to mention is that food imports from of Armenian significantly increased last year due to Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union, which reflects our common drive for integration.
As to agriculture, I wish to note that a great development potential exists in this sphere not only in terms of bilateral purchases of products or agricultural techniques, but also in terms of creating joint ventures. There are a number of projects, among others featuring greenhouse farms and processed fruits and vegetables, which have access to Russian trade networks. We have a huge market, and I feel we need to focus on this vector in the near future.
We have explored other opportunities as well, including cooperation in investment; we discussed the idea of establishing a special fund to this end. We agreed to instruct the respective agencies to analyze the possibility of forming such a fund aimed at investment cooperation, and of course looking for financing sources.
We have built a level and easy-to-understand playing field for both Armenian and Russian businesses in the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union. We hope to have fewer customs and bureaucratic procedures so that we could strive to make our markets more open.
Indeed, there are some other directions: the interregional cooperation program for the coming 5 years and a memorandum of cooperation between the RF Ministry of Industry and the RA Ministry of Economic Development and Investment were signed today. These are instruments, based on which we can build up economic cooperation for the coming years.
Of course, humanitarian cooperation and the strengthening of direct contacts between our citizens are of key importance, too. Here everything is all right, but anyway we have agreed that RF citizens shall henceforth be able to visit Armenia with their internal passports, and a relevant document was signed to that effect. This will help strengthen cooperation in the humanitarian field.
While our countries entertain comprehensive economic relations and Russia is Armenia’s leading partner, there is a benchmark that can be developed practically from zero. This is very important for our future relations. I wish to reiterate my gratitude to Karen Karapetyan and other Armenian friends for joint work.
RA Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan:
Dear Dmitry Anatolyevich,
I wish to once again express my gratitude for the invitation to visit Moscow and the warm welcome shown to our delegation, as well as for a constructive and friendly meeting. We do not want to make a secret of the fact that this visit to Moscow is a visit paid to a friendly, fraternal and allied country. I would like to state sincerely, without unnecessary diplomacy that we are very much satisfied with today’s negotiations, including their outcome and those instructions given to respective sides in terms of future cooperation.
We discussed with the Russian Premier the results of the work done so far. We stated that our bilateral relations are at a very high level. At the same time, I believe everyone will agree with me that our relations have great development potentials. We discussed a number of directions of how to push ahead with the Russian-Armenian relations, and I think that we were able to outline the development vectors and specific programs.
As to the documents signed today, I think they will go a long way toward fostering cultural and humanitarian ties between our two countries. I think Armenia is underestimated by Russian citizens as a country of tourism. We expect to bring about serious changes in the sphere of tourism this year.
Dmitry Anatolevich, taking the opportunity, I would like to invite you to pay an official visit to Yerevan, since I believe that the vectors you mentioned have a great future. I am convinced that everything will be fine. Thank you.
