Vladimir Putin: Russia remains leading trade and economic partner of Armenia

 Vladimir Putin met at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence with President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, who is in a working visit to Russia, the Kremlin press-office said. 

The two presidents discussed further deepening of bilateral cooperation in various areas, including integration cooperation within the Eurasian space.

Welcoming the guest, President Putin said that despite regular phone talks, vis-a-vis meetings and meetings on sidelines of various conference and summits, they always have what to discuss with each other. 

The Russian president said that Russia remains the leading trade and economic partner of Armenia. "Last year, compared to 2013, out commodity turnover grew drastically. Unfortunately, some downward trends have been observed in the first half of the current year," the president said suggesting discussing some nuances and issues. 

President Sargsyan, in turn, hailed the rich agenda of the bilateral Armenian -Russian relations recalling Vladimir Putin's visit to Yerevan on occasion of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, the meeting in Moscow on occasion of the 70th Anniversary of the Victory in GPW, and the Summit in UFA. "In that period we discussed a range of important issues for Armenia. I'd like to thank you for transfer of the criminal case against Permyakov to the Armenian judiciary," the president said. 
The Armenian president said that Armenia signed an agreement with the Energy Ministry of Russia on September 7. The document allowed reducing the price of the Russian natural gas for Armenia by 25 dollars - to 165 dollars per 1000 cubic meters. "We have signed an agreement on a concession loan for 200 million dollars to modernize the armory of the Armenian Armed Forces. We signed an agreement and it came into effect and we began modernizing the nuclear power plant," Serzh Sargsyan said.
Addressing the Eurasian Economic Union, Serzh Sargsyan said Armenia is ready to start working to enforce the principle of free movement of goods, capitals, services and labor force, and, in this light, the prices of energy resources in Armenia remain the key problem. "In such crisis situation, currency rate fluctuations are very painful for Armenia, as they lead to price hikes, and I hope we will find new, good solutions to the problem," Sargsyan said.

He thanked Russia and the Russian leaders for the efforts towards peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict.  "During the last two weeks, the situation on the border was very tense, as Azerbaijan began using artillery along with large-caliber weapons. We are reluctant to retaliate and I will present the situation in more details at the CSTO Summit in Dushanbe," he said.

The president hails the dynamically developing humanitarian relations of Armenia and Russia, recalling the lately opened branch of the Moscow State University after Lomonosov, the Russian gymnasium that will start operating soon and the upcoming third forum of the MGIMO graduated students in Yerevan. "I think it will help us further enhance our relations. I'd like to say that the intergovernmental committee works quite efficiently too," the Armenian president said.