Military-technical, energy, infrastructure sectors– Pashinyan’s adviser presents busy agenda of Premier’s Moscow visit

The Pashinyan-Putin meeting proceeded in a very warm atmosphere, a number of agenda issues have been discussed, the PM’s advisor Arsen Kharatyan told reporters after the premier’s aircraft landed in Yerevan’s airport.

“A number of directions concerning our bilateral and multilateral cooperation was discussed, including military-technical cooperation, our cooperation in the EEU circle, as well as our tasks in the energy sector. I hope we will have good news soon,” Kharatyan told reporters.

Speaking about the Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan’s meeting with Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Kharatyan said although the meeting had also an introductory nature, the meeting was rather productive. Issues of restoring the active work of the Armenian-Russian intergovernmental commission were discussed, certain issues of the agenda were touched upon, which were also discussed with President Putin.

“I believe that quick processes will take place in this direction also. Our tasks in the CIS and EEU circles were also discussed. A discussion about transportation infrastructures also took place, which will continue. I hope that we will have good news here too. As we know that Russia has an agreement with Georgia back from 2011, where a Swiss company has tasks to do over possible alternative routers, we also know that Russia has approved its participation,” he said. In 2011, Russia and Georgia had signed the “Bilateral Agreement On Main Principles Of Customs Administration and Trade Turnover Monitoring Mechanisms.

Kharatyan noted that Russia is the first partner of Armenia in terms of trade turnover.

He stressed that today the possibilities of enhancing the effectiveness of the countries’ involvement and tasks in existing economic formats is being discussed. The expansion of the list of Armenian companies in the EEU, which can have involvement here, is also being discussed.

“Naturally we also speak about road infrastructure, where we have an efficiency issue. It’s summer, it’s the season of fruit exports and the uninterrupted functioning of roads is a priority. We will do our best wherever it is possible to have quick solutions to ease the life of our businessmen,” he said.

Kharatyan said that the Armenian PM and the Azerbaijani President were introduced to one another after the first match of 2018 FIFA World Cup, they shook hands, but there was no substantive conversation between them.

Asked if there was any discussion about the Belarusian supplies of weapons to Azerbaijan during the working visit, Kharatyan said: “There was physically no time for leaders to meet and talk, but naturally we are aware of this and I believe there will be a conversation soon.”

He said that the Karabakh issue wasn’t discussed during this meeting.

The Armenian Prime Minister was in Moscow June 13 and June 14 for the 2018 FIFA World Cup opening. During the visit, PM Nikol Pashinyan had meetings with President Putin, PM Medvedev.