Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Armenia’s Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the Kremlin.
“I am glad for the opportunity to meet with you, to talk about all the issues that are of interest to us. And of course, I would like to once again congratulate you on the election results,” Putin said.
“I think that this is important for everyone, first of all, of course, for Armenia, for the Armenian people, bearing in mind that such complex, very acute and sensitive issues that need to be resolved can only be resolved if there is an opportunity to work effectively. And for this, the most important thing is to have the people’s trust. You have it, it was as shown by election results. This is very important, in fact, this is the most important thing. In such difficult times for the life of the country, this is probably the most important condition for further development,” the Russian President added.
Nikol Pashinyan, in turn, once offered condolences over the plane crash in Kamchatka and expressed his sympathy to the families and loved ones of all the victims.
He stressed that the meeting is the third in Moscow this year, noting that “it reflects the dynamics of relations between our countries.”
“Unfortunately, recently we have been discussing security-related issues very often, because the situation in our region is not very stable. Of course, everyone knows your personal efforts and the efforts of the Russian Federation in achieving a ceasefire in the 44-day war,” the acting PM said.
“After the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh, the situation is stable, but from time to time some hotbeds of anxiety and instability arise. And today I want to share with you my assessments and opinions of why and how this is happening. The situation on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan is not yet stable, and we talked about this on several occasions. I want to say that here too, unfortunately, we have had a hotbed of constant concern over the past two months,” he added.
“Until now, I must state that, unfortunately, the issue of prisoners of war has not yet been fully resolved, although, fortunately, there is some good news here: a few days ago 15 prisoners of war were returned to their homeland, and I want to emphasize your personal role in this and thank. We discussed this topic in our telephone conversation on June 24, and a week later 15 of our compatriots returned to their homeland,” Pashinyan noted.
“There is some good news in the economic sphere too. I hope you remember that in 2019 we in Yerevan discussed issues related to the activities of the South Caucasus Railway, and I must say that today the renewal of railway trains in Armenia is in full swing. This is really very good news, because a large investment program is being implemented. This year, exports from Armenia to Russia are also growing after a Covid year,” he added.
Pashinyan also thanked Putin for his support in delivering the Sputnik-V vaccine to Armenia. “Today we have already received over 100 thousand doses. Thank God, the situation with the coronavirus in Armenia is pretty good, and against this background there is already a flow of Russian tourists to Armenia.”
