In the sidelines of the session of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council held in Almaty, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan had a meeting with Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin.
In his speech, the Prime Minister of Russia stated:
"Dear Nikol Vovaevich, dear colleagues,
I am happy for this new meeting.
First of all, I would like to convey to you the best wishes of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. You recently talked with him on the phone and discussed the most important issues of our bilateral agenda.
For my part, I would like to convey my greetings to the President of Armenia, Honorable Vahagn Garnikovich Khachaturyan.
We sincerely appreciate the allied and partnering relations with Armenia. Our countries are connected by good, fraternal relations, based on the historical friendship of the Russian and Armenian peoples.
At the government level, very active work is being done in the direction of strengthening trade and economic cooperation. And, despite the difficult external situation, our cooperation is developing successfully.
Russia is Armenia's leading foreign trade partner and the main investor in the economy. Let me give examples. In January-November last year, mutual trade increased by 77% compared to 2021. It exceeded 4.1 billion USD, which for today is a record-high indicator in our mutual trade.
The volume of Russian investments is about 2 billion USD. More than 40 leading Russian companies operate in the Armenian market and are among the largest taxpayers in Armenia.
We suggest to launch new joint projects more actively. Dear Nikol Vovaevich, we discussed the industrial cooperative in detail with you a while ago. And the sectors that may traditionally be of interest, are peaceful nuclear power, energy, mining, transport, logistics and digital technology.
Practical issues are resolved at the level of the intergovernmental commission. On our side, it is led by Alexey Overchuk.
The economic cooperation program for the period until 2025 is in effect. Our cooperation is also expanding through the Russian Export Center. During 2022, we organized 24 business missions to Armenia with the participation of dozens of regions of Russia.
Armenian businessmen now have excellent opportunities to work in our market due to the withdrawal of unfriendly countries from it, I mean not only large business, but also small and medium enterprises, which will contribute to the growth of jobs.
And, of course, we traditionally attach special importance to our education. About 5,000 Armenian students study in Russian universities. The Government of the Russian Federation allocated a quota of 250 scholarships for the coming academic year.
Dear Nikol Vovaevich, we are consistently advocating the unblocking of economic and transport communications in Transcaucasia. We consider it important to ensure the implementation of the agreements reached by the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The creation of new transport infrastructure routes is in the interests of all states of the region.
And I am ready to discuss with you, dear Nikol Vovaevich, all the topical issues of our bilateral agenda."
In turn, Prime Minister Pashinyan noted.
"Thank you, dear Mikhail Vladimirovich, dear colleagues, I'm glad to see you all. You emphasized that there is a new dynamic in our trade and economic relations and mutual trade, it is true, we have recorded a good and big growth.
I have talked about it many times, that there are some objective reasons, but I want to emphasize that there is the special personal role of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, your personal role and the role of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk in this dynamic.
You know that unfortunately we often face logistical problems and we are very grateful that you always respond very promptly and make decisions that contribute to the quick solution of these problems.
Everything is good with us in the field of economy, you know that the Russian Federation is the key partner of Armenia in the field of security and, unfortunately, the situation is not so good with us in the field of security. You know that Lachin Corridor has been blocked for more than a month, and according to the trilateral declaration of the President of the Russian Federation, the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia, it should be under the control of Russian peacekeepers. Now it turns out that the Lachin Corridor is not under the control of Russian peacekeepers, which creates specific problems.
Now we can say that a humanitarian crisis is escalating in Nagorno Karabakh. It is a very important and sensitive issue in our bilateral relations. Unfortunately, we have certain issues in the field of security also in the multilateral format, in the CSTO, and we hope that we will manage to solve all these issues. We are working, we are interested, but unfortunately, frankly speaking, we see no progress in those directions.
During the CSTO Yerevan summit, it seemed to us that we had reached concrete agreements regarding the opening of regional economic and transport infrastructures. Vladimir Vladimirovich had arrived with specific proposals and we agreed on aspects of those agreed options for opening up regional infrastructure, but unfortunately, these agreements could not be implemented later due to the unconstructive and counterproductive position of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
But you know that we are not only ready, but are also interested in the opening of transport and economic infrastructures, because in fact the Republic of Armenia has been under Azerbaijani blockade for the last 30 years and we are of course very interested in opening all transport and economic infrastructures in the region.
We believe that this should happen in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Armenia. I mean point 9 of the trilateral declaration of November 9, 2020, which we made more concrete in the trilateral statement of January 11, 2021. We have repeatedly said that in the implementation of point 9 of the trilateral declaration, we must act in accordance with the legislation of the countries through the territories of which those infrastructures pass.
Of course, the agenda of our relations is very broad and I am sure that today we will talk about all issues."
