Armenia will spare no effort in further fostering relations with UAE – President Sargsyan

One of the major directions of Armenia’s foreign policy has been cooperation with Arab countries, President Serzh Sargsyan said in an interview for a special edition of Gulf News newspaper and Global FDI Reports about Armenia.

“We have been able to establish good, mutually beneficial cooperation with the UAE, as well as with other countries in the region. These good relations that we enjoy should be taken advantage of and transferred into economic cooperation”, the President said.

He recalled the business forum held in Abu Dhabi in 2017, stating that it was a continuation of the discussions held during his official visit to the UAE back in 2016. President Sargsyan said Armenia established a visa-free regime for UAE citizens and for legal residence there.

“We also concluded a new agreement to encourage and protect investments. Meanwhile, many entrepreneurs made reciprocal visits: Emiratis to Armenia and Armenians to the UAE. The result in 2017 was that our trade turnover exceeded $200m. I believe this is just a small volume of the huge untapped potential that exists for economic cooperation – only about 15%-20%. Therefore, we will continue to draw closer and spare no effort in further fostering our relations with the UAE in all possible areas”, the Armenian President said.