Members of the United Russia faction — head of the parliamentary group
on relations with the Armenian Parliament Igor Shubin
Igor Nikolaevich
and Deputy Chairman of the Committee on State Building and Legislation Aleksandr Gribov
Aleksandr Sergeeviсh
participated in the meeting.
Opening the meeting, Sergei
Neverov
Sergey Ivanovich
reminded that the State Duma and the United Russia faction cooperate “with
many CIS countries, with many political blocs”. For example, today the State
Duma holds the International Conference “Role of Interaction between
Factions of Political Parties and Blocs in Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation
of the CIS Countries”, and representatives of the Commonwealth of Independent States take part in it. Meetings of Russian parliamentarians with
foreign delegations are held within the framework of the Conference.
“The meeting with our colleagues from Armenia is important for us; we have long-standing relations with this country,” the leader of the faction said.
He also thanked for the recent invitation to visit Armenia: “I have the most pleasant impressions of these meetings, especially with the young people, with members of the Parliament”.
Gagik Tsarukyan, in his turn, thanked Sergei Neverov for “warm welcome, attitude, attention — we cooperate every day.” “Time strengthens our relationship, our friendship. We are ready to continue our projects, programs, support. We are ready to work and work to see out nations communicating, getting acquainted, being friends. Such relations contribute to the prosperity of our countries — Russia, Armenia, our peoples,” the leader of the Tsarukyan bloc said.
“Building a dialogue with a strategic partner is clearly our priority,” Sergei Neverov said. “We have a common past, a common future that we are building for our children and future generations.”
It should be noted, parliamentary elections in Armenia will be held on December 9, and participants of the meeting also discussed this topic. The leader of the United Russia faction stressed that members of the State Duma “are closely monitoring” what is happening in Armenia “in this challenging period”.
“We have already discussed the issue of dispatching electoral observers not only from the State Duma, but also from such organizations as the OSCE,” Sergei Neverov said and wished for Gagik Tsarukyan’s bloc to maintain representation in Parliament and increase its membership after the elections.
The parliamentarians also discussed key issues of Armenian-Russian relations, issues of deepening inter-parliamentary and inter-party relations. In particular, Sergei Neverov considers it necessary to develop further cooperation between the two countries, also through the Eurasian Economic Union and the CSTO. “We should use these opportunities,” he said.
In addition, the parties during the meeting noted the need to enhance cooperation between the two countries in the economic sphere. As Armenian parliamentarians mentioned, Russia is the main trading and economic partner — more than 1 000 joint Armenian-Russian ventures operate in Armenia at present.
