The accession of Armenia to the trade bloc led by Russia and the Association Agreement between Georgia and the European Union can be used for deepening relations between the two neighboring countries, said the Minister of Affairs Georgian Foreign Mikheil Janelidze during a visit to Yerevan on Friday.
Janelidze and President Serzh Sargsyan agreed that Armenia and Georgia had a “great potential to develop bilateral cooperation in the framework of two different integration process.”
“Both countries believe that this will allow to intensify the Armenian-Georgian relations,” Sargsyan assured the office in a statement on the talks held by the two men.
Janelidze had also discussed the issue at a separate meeting with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian held earlier in the day. “We talked about how we could use these integration processes to benefit our cooperation,” he told a joint press conference with Nalbandian.
“There are no problems between Armenia and Georgia,” said Nalbandian for his part. “If there are any, they are solved through joint efforts.”
The Armenian minister added that they talked, among others, possible joint projects on transport infrastructure, trade and energy.
Armenia and Georgia are expected to build by 2018 a new transmission line that will make their interconnected grids. The $ 115 million is funded by the German development bank State and the European Union.
Membership in the Eurasian Economic Union led by Russia (EEU) requires that the Armenian government adopts substantially higher fees for goods imported from countries outside the bloc. Many expected that this will lead to the end of free trade arrangements between Georgia and Armenia, since Georgia has entered a “free trade area depth” with the European Union.
However, Armenian officials have assured the end of 2014 that Armenia has managed to convince the other member states of the EEU to let her keep special arrangements it has with Georgia.
Claire © armenews.com