Although there is no direct dependence of Yerevan on Moscow, Russia has always been and still remains the key strategic partner of Armenia and the biggest investor in its economy, members of the Armenian-Russian Inter-parliamentary Commission for Cooperation said after the regular sitting of the Commission in Nizhny Novgorod, held on 7-11 June.
For the Armenian-Russian Inter-Parliamentary Commission an important issue is the expansion of small and medium business cooperation between the two countries, the head of the delegation, National Assembly Vice-Chairperson Hermine Naghdalyan during the press conference of the Armenian delegation. "We attached great importance to this issue in the time when there had been no talks about the process of integration with Russia. And later, after September 3 this issue has become much more important for us. We must work hard to expand the economic cooperation between the two countries", - she said.
Mrs. Naghdalyan underlined that in Nizhny Novgorod at the last session of the Commission an agreement was reached to set up working groups in the two countries that will study the economic cooperation between the two countries, will try to find out the problems and possibilities of expanding the cooperation, and in autumn, at the next session of the Commission will present the results of their study and the recommendations.
She also added that an arrangement was made with the Russian party, according to which Armenian migrants will be given easy conditions similar to the migration conditions of the Russian citizens.
Touching on the statement by the head of the "Russia Today", Dmitri Kiselev, about the necessity of the Russian language "returning" to Armenia, Naghdalyan said that the Russian language may not be given a status of the second state language in Armenia, as Armenia is a mono-ethnic republic.