OREANDA-NEWS.  January 23, 2012. Dmitry Medvedev and Serzh Sargsyan discussed current Russian-Armenian cooperation matters and the regional agenda.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Mr Sargsyan, it is a pleasure to see you.

We have this fine tradition of meeting in Sochi, in the mountains, in wintertime. I see many good symbols in this tradition.

We will discuss now the current state of our bilateral cooperation and look at last year’s results. The year was not bad overall, especially in terms of our trade results. We will talk about the various aspects of our cooperation, from economic ties to military technical cooperation. Looking to the future, we will also look at big projects in areas other than developing the sectors in which our ties are already solidly established and permeate the whole fabric of our bilateral economic relations.

I propose that along with our bilateral relations we also discuss regional issues. Life is complex and places us before a number of difficult challenges, including here in this region. We will later continue the discussions on one of the most complex regional problems – settling the Nagorno Karabakh conflict – together with our Azerbaijani colleague.

I wish you a warm welcome and am very happy to see you again in Sochi.

PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA SERZH SARGSYAN: Mr Medvedev, thank you for the invitation.

These very useful meetings have indeed become a tradition. Thank you for the efforts that you put into resolving the Nagorno Karabakh problem. These meetings and the effort and time you give to resolving this problem make it possible to keep the situation in the South Caucasus more or less under control. They are therefore very useful and give us a good opportunity to discuss our bilateral matters too.

I agree fully that last year produced some decent results, with, in any event, a roughly 15-percent increase in bilateral trade, which is substantial. Thank you for your readiness to discuss big projects. This is very important to us.