Serzh Sargsyan: Armenia will only benefit from Russia's invigorated role in the region

Armenia will only benefit from Russia's invigorated role in the region, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said during a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.   

The official website of the Kremlin quotes Serzh Sargsyan as saying, "To begin with, I would like to thank President of Russia Vladimir Putin for his wonderful hospitality. Our active political dialogue at the highest level is a testament to the state of our bilateral relations, which span all fields of government activity - from the CSTO allied partnership to economic integration in the Eurasian Economic Union and close humanitarian cooperation. We are expanding ties between our regions.  The now regular interregional Armenian-Russian forums and direct contacts between our regions are playing a major part in this. We appreciate Russia's role in the world and in our region where a host of processes affecting stability and security are taking place simultaneously. Armenia closely followed President Vladimir Putin's intensive foreign policy contacts during the past week, which is absolutely understandable considering that Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey border on Armenia. I would like to thank the President of Russia for the information he provided about these meetings and I am confident that Armenia will only gain from Russia's invigorated role in the region. Today we discussed the considerable success we have had in increasing Armenian-Russian trade. This is a direct response to those skeptics who said that Armenia would not gain anything from membership in the Eurasian Economic Union. Suffice it to say that despite all the international complications and obstacles our trade grew substantially, and Armenian exports to Russia increased by almost 90 percent in the first half of this year. I am convinced that we will be able to maintain and strengthen this trend since we are far from fully using the existing potential of our trade and economic ties even today".

Sargsyan stressed that the issue of peace and accord is particularly relevant during the Olympic Games. "We would like to wish success once again to the Russian and Armenian teams and to celebrate together the successes your and our athletes have already achieved.  We are very proud that Russian athletes of Armenian origin have done very well. The Ice Palace named after Irina Rodnina, a legend in world figure skating, opened in Yerevan several months ago. I am convinced that shared victories and achievements in sport fully reflect the mutual feelings of our nations.  As the saying goes, a sound mind in a sound body," he stressed.