Official website of the President of Russia

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Dmitry Medvedev: Serzh Azatovich, colleagues,

We have already held the first part of our comradely discussion on how to develop relations between Russia and Armenia. The President of Armenia and I discussed complex political issues, including resolution of the Nagorny Karabakh problem.

Now we propose concentrating on trade and economic matters. We have already made good progress in this area. Our trade turnover has increased significantly, posting a rise of almost two thirds over these last months. Slowly but surely (and not even so slowly these days) we are nearing the $1-billion mark.

This is a good result, and we also have good results in terms of total reciprocal investment. Russian investment in Armenia already comes to more than $1 billion and is now at around $1.2 billion. This is an important milestone for our relations and is a good basis on which to continue developing our trade and economic cooperation.

There is also the cultural dimension to our relations: we have held the Year of Armenia in Russia and the Year of Russia in Armenia. These were very positive events. I think that we have made many useful achievements over this time and we need to preserve this for our work in the future.

Serzh Sargsyan: Dmitry Anatolyevich,

I would like to thank you once more for the invitation and the warm reception. I am sure that our relations will always be set on an upward course.

I agree that Russian investment is at a good level today and our trade and economic turnover is increasing, but I hope that within a year or two we will be talking not about millions or even about hundreds of millions, but about billions and more.

Dmitry Medvedev: That is a good plan indeed. Let’s work on it together.

Serzh Sargsyan: If it has your support that is excellent. Of course, we will also develop our humanitarian relations. This is something our peoples need and we are well aware of this. We realise that we need to pass on to the young generation what we know about each other, and I think that in this direction too we must make progress.