4 minute read
YEREVAN, APRIL 9, ARMENPRESS. The relations of Russia and Armenia have allied, strategic partnership nature. They are enshrined in bilateral agreements, the documents of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said in response to Armenian media, commenting on the Armenia-Russian bilateral ties over the past ten years, Armenpress reports.
The Russian FM said these relations include all spheres of the states’ activity starting from politics to security, from foreign policy to culture, economy, technological contacts, humanitarian ties, education and etc.
He attached importance to the fact that over the past ten years the relations developed under the direct and reliable contacts of the presidents of the two countries Vladimir Putin and Serzh Sargsyan: the presidents hold several high-level meetings annually, as well as communicate with each other on the sidelines of international forums.
“We specifically want to highlight Armenia’s membership to the Eurasian Economic Union, which, undoubtedly, gives a very strong impetus to our commercial, investment cooperation. It’s enough to say that last year the trade turnover between Russia and Armenia increased by more than 30% compared to 2016, reaching 1 billion 750 million USD, if I remember correctly”, Lavrov said. He reminded that at the moment Armenian-Russian joint enterprises operate in Armenia which significantly benefit the bilateral ties, as well as allied Armenia’s economy.
The Russian minister said there is a very close traditional military-technical cooperation between the two countries. “As for the commercial cooperation issues, in addition to the inter-governmental commission, we also have a commission on cooperation on military-technical affairs. Their activity gives quite a good result”, he said.
Lavorv said the cooperation in humanitarian field is quite demanded, recalling the Days of Armenian Culture held in Russia in autumn, 2017 the opening ceremony of which was attended by the presidents of the two countries.
As for the education field, Lavrov said the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) university operates in Yerevan.
“Over the last ten years there is, undoubtedly, a very stable and qualitative growth in our bilateral relations. It is being supplemented by the close cooperation in the foreign policy field. We are allies within CSTO. I already mentioned the EAEU where Armenia is a full member. Of course, the CIS also fully maintains its relevance, as well as our coordinated actions in the UN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Organization for the Black Sea Economic Cooperation”, Lavrov said, adding that although he didn’t mention everything characterizing the bilateral ties of the past ten years, but these are enough to understand how rich these ties are and to what extent they are in accordance with the interests of the countries at the moment.
English –translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan