Armenian PM receives Iranian delegates
Armenia's Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan today received an Iranian delegation headed by the Minister of Roads and Communication of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hamid Bahbahan.
Greeting the guests, the Prime Minister noted that Armenia attaches great importance to the further development of friendly relations with Iran, which have deep historic roots. The global financial crisis is another opportunity to deepen and reinforce the bilateral ties, noted rthe Armenian Premier.
In this context, emphassing the importance of the Armenian President's forthcoming official visit to Iran, the Prime Minister expressed confidence that it will serve as a new impetus for the further development of relations and will contribute to the more effective implementation of programs in different spheres.
Minister Hamid Bahbahan also underlined that Armenia is an important friendly state to Iran, the cooperation with which is one of the priorities of his country's foreign economic policy. Among the programs in the field of transport the Minister pointed to the project of construction of the Iran-Armenia railway. He noted that within the framework of the visit he had a meeting with the Armenian Ministers of Energy and Transport, as a result of which a corresponding working group has already been set up. According to Hamid Bahbahan, the works will be carried out in three stages: the study of the technical-economic bases of the project, confirmation of financial sources, determination of the most optimal directions and the construction itself. He underlined that Iran is going to maximally assist Armenia in all three stages of project implementation. "The southern road of Armenia is more than reliable today, and we will aspire to do our best to make the communication between our countries maximally easier," the Minister stated.
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan also underlined that Armenia is interested in the construction of the railway, the absence of which does not allow utilizing the existing potential in full. According to the Prime Minister, with the exploitation of the Iran-Armenia railway the situation with the commodity turnover will immediately change, many enterprises will start working. There are projects in the fields of energy, agriculture and others, which will promote the development of economic cooperation between the two countries.
