YEREVAN, JULY 8, ARMENPRESS. After the session of the Inter-Governmental Commission on Economic Cooperation between Armenia and Russia, Armenian Prime Minister, Co-chair of the Armenian side Hovik Abrahamyan and Russian Transport Minister, Co-chair of the Russian side Maxim Sokolov delivered announcements for the media with results of the session.

In particular, PM Abrahamyan said in his speech: “Dear Maxim Sokolov, I once again thank you for the warm reception. Shortly before the works of the 17th session of the Armenia-Russia Inter-governmental Commission’s on Economic Cooperation were completed. We, with Mr. Sokolov, signed the protocol of the session, which summarized last year’s works of the commission and defined the basic directions and issues of our cooperation for the near future. The Inter-governmental commission’s session is an important event in the relations of the two countries. The Commission – being one of the effective tools of development of intergovernmental relations – gives an exclusive opportunity for discussing various issues related to bilateral relations. The circle of discussed issues during today’s session is pretty broad. Issues related to economy, energy, transport, legal-contractual field, humanitarian cooperation, education, science, culture and other fields were discussed. The positive dynamics in trade-economic cooperation field was especially highlighted, for ensuring the continuation of which we need to use our entire potential. Summing up, I can say that the session took place in a constructive and mutual understanding atmosphere, as always. We are pleased with the implemented works and achieved agreements, which are of immediate practical importance for the economies of our countries. I am sure that the agreements will be successfully implemented”.

For his part, Mr. Sokolov said:”Our work is implemented exclusively open, as it corresponds to real friends, colleagues. All the interactions, works, which are implemented in the framework of our Inter-Governmental commission, speak to the fact that this really is an effective mechanism for operational coordination, resolution of all issues and joint actions. Not only the commission’s sessions, but also the meetings of co-chairs, heads of working groups and members of the commission are being held on a regular basis and it is exemplary, because ties are very close and really business-like. This allows the efficient solution of all issues, and results speak for themselves. During this year the trade turnover between Russia and Armenia increased by 10% - reaching 450 million USD, export of Armenian products to Russia increased several times, reaching more than 125 million USD, and despite of external economic and political tensions, it is obvious that Russia was and continues to be the main trading partner of Armenia.

The agenda of our today’s session included a wide range of issues, as always the main focus was on broadening cooperation in energy, transport, supply of agricultural products and humanitarian fields. We summed up previous decisions of the Inter-Governmental commission, and they are not few, the protocol of the 16th sessions included almost 60 points and many of those have been implemented, which was an additional signal to our relations. Thus an agreement was reached on decreasing the supplied Russian gas price, in the issue of providing Armenia oil products without customs tariffs, the issue of providing a special route in the Upper Lars checkpoint has been solves, the Russian-Armenian inter-regional 4th forum was held, the Rapid Response Center of Armenia-Russia humanitarian cooperation was established in Armenia. Of course life goes on, we have set new issues ahead, we just signed the protocol of the 17th session of the Inter-Governmental Commission, by which several instructions were given to agencies of the sides and of course the implementation of these instructions will be under the special supervision of the co-chairs”.