Sarkisian To Meet Russia's Medvedev

[MrHyeSev]

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--President Serzh Sarkisian will meet his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev early next week for talks that will apparently focus on Russia's conflict with Georgia.

Sarkisian's office said on Friday the meeting will take place in the Russian Black Sea port of Sochi next Tuesday. It said the two presidents will discuss “further development of the Russian-Armenian strategic partnership” and “regional and international issues.”

Armenia's unfolding presidency of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Russian-led military alliance of six ex-Soviet states, will also be on the agenda, it added. No further details were reported.

Medvedev and Sarkisian already discussed the crisis over Georgia in a phone conversation on August 13, one week after the outbreak of fighting in South Ossetia that escalated into an all-out South Ossetian-Georgian war, in which Russia finds itself unavoidably engaged.

The Armenian presidential press service said afterwards that they “agreed to hold, if need be, additional consultations on further developments” in the conflict zone. Armenia has avoided openly taking sides in the dispute, mindful of Georgia's vital significance for its transport communication with the outside world and its dependence on Russia for defense and energy resources.

Still, Sarkisian did signal last week his disapproval of Tbilisi's disastrous attempt to restore Georgian control over South Ossetia by force. And while declining to support Russia's decision to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, official Yerevan has made clear it that it believes the status of the two breakaway territories should be determined by their pro-Russian populations

[North Pole]

Re: Sarkisian To Meet Russia's Medvedev

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--President Serzh Sarkisian will meet his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev early next week for talks that will apparently focus on Russia's conflict with Georgia.

Here's some info from kremlin.ru:



September 2, 2008 12:30
Tuesday BOCHAROV RUCHEI, SOCHI.
Dmitry Medvedev met with President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan.

They discussed issues of bilateral cooperation and the situation in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

They paid particular attention to establishing new transport routes between the two countries, given that a significant portion of trade and transit between Russia and Armenia involves crossing Georgian territory.

They discussed extensively ways of intensifying cooperation between Russia and Armenia in the field of energy, gas exports and infrastructure development in Armenia. The talks concluded with a number of instructions to ministries and departments in both countries.

In light of the forthcoming presidency of Armenia of the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organisation), the two Presidents discussed preparations for the forthcoming meeting of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.

The meeting touched on the problem of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. The President of Russia said that he favours the continuation of direct dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

http://kremlin.ru/eng/sdocs/themes.shtml#206119

Beginning of the Meeting with President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan

September 2, 2008
Bocharov Ruchei, Sochi


PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Dear Serzh Azatovich!

I am glad to see you. We meet regularly. The last time we talked in detail was during your visit to Moscow. The visit was informative and, in my opinion, our dialogue continues to evolve. You know its results. There is nevertheless even more potential for growth. I think that we will also talk about economic problems.

But I will not hide the fact that I would like to exchange opinions on international issues and foreign policy. In just a few days the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organisation) summit will begin. Armenia will assume the presidency. I think that we can reflect on how to organise our work and share our thoughts in this regard. Especially since we have not seen each other since Georgia committed an aggression against South Ossetia. Let's talk about these difficult issues. I am glad to see you.


PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA SERZH SARGSYAN: Thank you Dmitry Anatolyevich. These working meetings in Sochi between the presidents of Russia and Armenia have become a very good tradition. They represent a very good opportunity to calmly discuss both our bilateral relations as well as our relations in multilateral formats. So I really am happy. All the more so since, as you just mentioned, in these coming days Armenia will assume the presidency of the CSTO. By the way, we have recently held Rubezh-2008, the CSTO joint command and staff exercises, a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the CSTO, and tomorrow in Yerevan a meeting of the CSTO Security Council Secretaries will take place. I am therefore glad that we are meeting today.

Of course I would also like to discuss economic issues, further strengthening and deepening our relations within the CSTO and, of course, the situation that has developed in our region of the Caucasus.

This really is our first meeting after the events in South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Georgia. We talked about this over the phone. I would like to once again express my condolences with regards to the deaths of many people – Russian citizens, peacekeepers – my regret that the events developed the way they did, and wishes that the consequences of this humanitarian catastrophe can be eliminated as quickly as possible. Incidentally, in Armenia we have already been waiting for schoolchildren from South Ossetia for two weeks now. We have prepared educational laboratories in physics, chemistry and biology. We want to do everything we can to help mitigate these consequences.


DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Thank you very much, Serzh Azatovich, for this humanitarian support. As for the rest, including the consequences of what happened, and bearing in mind our work in the CSTO, we will now talk about this tentatively with you, but the final position of the CSTO member states will be developed during the forthcoming summit in Moscow.

Source: http://kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2008/...4_206075.shtml