Armenia Interested in Opening Communications: Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Receives Russian Deputy Prime Minister

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan today received Alexey Overchuk, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. This was reported by the Government of Armenia.

Welcoming his guest, Prime Minister Pashinyan noted, “Dear Alexey Logvinovich, I welcome you to Yerevan and am very glad that you are participating in the Armenian-Russian Business Forum. This is a very important event for us, and we hope that it will contribute to attracting new Russian investments to Armenia. Of course, we are highly interested in having Armenian-origin Russian entrepreneurs be active, especially now when we are in the post-war recovery phase. In this regard, this is also an important opportunity to discuss the ongoing tasks related to the trilateral working group engaged in the issue of opening regional communications. As I have mentioned several times, we are greatly interested in opening communications, which we see as an opportunity to overcome the blockade of Armenia, in which, unfortunately, we have been for more than 25 years. We hope that as a result of our work, we will arrive at specific decisions.

I also want to thank you for organizing the work of the trilateral group at a high level and am very pleased that you express such great interest in this matter. It is very important for us to finally establish railway connections with Russia, which will generally open new opportunities for the development of our economy and our integration in the Eurasian Economic Union. This will also make our membership in the Eurasian Economic Union more effective.”

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk, for his part, said, “Dear Nikol Vovovich, thank you for finding time for this meeting. As we agreed during our last meeting in Yerevan, a Russian business forum is being held here, and this is the first visit of the Russian business mission to Armenia in the post-war period. Since this morning, we have held a series of round tables where representatives of Armenian and Russian businesses gathered. Today, we toured all the round tables with Mher Herbert. These round tables are dedicated to infrastructure, transportation, energy, environmental issues, and the development of innovations. The most important thing is the interactions that are taking place; there are ideas around some projects, discussions follow, and intentions to establish connections. In other words, this is work oriented towards the future, and it is commendable: that is precisely why we have come—to restore and strengthen our ties.

There are indeed opportunities, and representatives of Russian development institutions are present here—specifically, representatives of the Russian State Development Corporation (VEB.RF), which also has export transactions and opportunities to finance their insurance. This entire toolkit can really work so that we implement our economic ties more effectively, develop them, and elevate our economic relations between Russia and Armenia to the level they should be at. Of course, as you rightly pointed out, this is also very important for the development of connections within the Eurasian Economic Union.”

The interlocutors exchanged thoughts on the issues mentioned. It is worth noting that this morning, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk, along with Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, participated in the event organized within the framework of the business mission of the Russian Federation to Armenia, titled “Armenian-Russian Economic Cooperation: Prospective Projects.”