Putin, Kocharian: "Russian-Armenian trade turnover growing"

"Trade turnover is growing, and I am sure there are good prospects for this grow and a desire of the business community to develop relations of partnership," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Armenian President Robert Kocharian in the run-up to the opening of an informal Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) summit in Sochi on Tuesday.

The Armenian president also pointed to growth in mutual trade turnover, but emphasized that "it would be difficult to achieve good quality without resolving the problems of communication and transportation."

Kocharian proposed that the two countries focus on the "investment component" and mentioned a project in which the Russian aluminum giant Rusal was involved and which had been announced in Sochi two years ago.

The presidents also expressed their willingness to discuss difficult problems facing Armenia.

"As for the well-known complex problems in the region, I believe we will have time to talk about them as well," Putin said.

/www.interfax.ru/