Vladimir Putin and Serzh Sargsyan meet

Russian President Vladimir Putin received his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan. The official website of the Kremlin reports that the Armenian President has arrived in Armenia on a working visit on Vladimir Putin's invitation.  

"Armenia is our strategic partner in the Transcaucasus and we are consistently building allied relations in all sensitive dimensions and on the international arena. I mean first of all the CIS space - we are all cooperating in the CSTO and in the Eurasian Economic Union," Vladimir Putin said, noting that since Armenia joined the EEU, the country's GDP has grown by 10%, according to the papers. "I hope this positive dynamics will be retained," he added.

The President of Armenia thanked his Russian counterpart. "According to the tradition, at this time of the year we meet to discuss the condition of our alliance and exchange views on the most topical issues on both the bilateral and regional agenda, as well as to consider the course of implementation of the previously reached agreements. I'd like to state that despite the regional and global problems in the economy, our commodity turnover has grown by 12% within 6 months and the Armenian exports to Russia have increased almost by 90%," he said, noting that this positive dynamics was due to the opportunities provided to Armenia by the EEU. He pointed at the intensive mutual visits of the high-ranking officials, and said that there are no serious problems in the bilateral relations.

Sargsyan expressed his personal gratitude to Putin for the efforts Russia is exerting in the process of diplomatic settlement of the Karabakh problem. "Of course, it is very important to implement the agreements reached. We are ready for that". Putin, in turn, said that his meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku covered, among other issues, the Karabakh problem as well. "Certainly, I will gladly inform you of the results of our conversation in Baku", he noted.