Vladimir Putin: “Armenia is our reliable partner”

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 22, ARMENPRESS: In St. Petersburg, at the residence of Russian Prime Minister, meeting of the Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and Vladimir Putin took place. The Russian prime minister described Armenia as Russia’s reliable partner and highlighted bilateral cooperation in different directions, including in political and military spheres.

He welcomed the readiness of the Armenian side to expand cooperation, which mainly refers to the location of military base in the Armenian territory. According to him, though the past year was full of difficulties agreed with the crisis, Russia assisted Armenia providing 500 million USD credit with privileged conditions with 15-year term that allowed ensuring certain level of trade turnover. Noting that Russia’s investments in Armenia make 3 billion USD, Vladimir Putin said neither of the Russian companies during this time left Armenia.

Currently more than thousand companies with Russian capital are operating in Armenia. “We are expecting that with Your and RA President’s support our businessmen will feel more convenient in Armenia,” the Russian prime minister said, expressing hope that with joint efforts it will be possible to bring the level of cooperation on the new level.

Expressing gratitude to the RF prime minister for reception on the eve of the New Year, Tigran Sargsyan highlighted the meeting in respect of summing up the bilateral economic cooperation and pointing out the programs to be implemented in the coming year. He assured that everything is being done so that Russian businessmen feel convenient in Armenia and come forth with initiatives.

Particularly, in “Mars” factory a free trade zone will be created. The legislative package is currently in the preparation round. The Armenian prime minister expressed hope that it will be possible to create such basis that will promote the further increase of Russian investments in Armenia.

At the meeting that took place with the participation of delegations of the two countries a wide-range of issues on bilateral economic cooperation were discussed.

The governmental delegation headed by Tigran Sargsyan comprises the Head of Government Staff, David Sargsyan, Finance Minister Vache Gabrielyan, Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan, other officials.