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YEREVAN HAILS RUSSIAN-GEORGIAN BORDER OPENING
Tigran Avetisian, Sargis Harutyunyan
http://www.azatutyun.am/content/artic le/1972669.html
02.03.2010
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian welcomed on Tuesday the reopening
of Georgia's main border crossing with Russia and confirmed reports
that a Russian-Georgian agreement to that effect was reached under
Armenian mediation.
"I can confirm that [Russian-Georgian] negotiations indeed took place
in Armenia and with Armenia's mediation," Nalbandian told journalists.
"And now that the checkpoint is operational it can be said that that
[agreement] is a big success for Russia and Georgia in the first
instance and, of course, for Armenia as well."
Russian and Georgian officials reportedly held indirect negotiations
in Yerevan last October. Their governments announced in late December
that they have agreed to reopen the Upper Lars crossing on March 1.
Traffic through the narrow pass in the Caucasus Mountains resumed as
planned on Monday.
Upper Lars is the only land border crossing that does not go through
Georgia's Russian-backed breakaway regions of South Ossetia and
Abkhazia. It served as Armenia's sole overland route to the former
Soviet Union and Europe until being controversially shut down by the
Russian authorities in June 2006, at the height of a Russian-Georgian
spy scandal.
With Russian-Georgian trade having steadily declined over the past
decade, the Upper Lars closure primarily hit trading companies shipping
goods to and from Armenia. Armenian exporters of agricultural produce
were particularly reliant on the crossing. They had to re-route their
deliveries through the more expensive and time-consuming rail-ferry
services between Georgia and Russia and Ukraine.
Arsen Ghazarian, chairman of the Armenian Union of Industrialists
and Entrepreneurs, predicted on Monday the reopening of the
Russian-Georgian border will boost exports of Armenian fruits and
vegetables already this year. He said it would reduce transportation
costs incurred by the exporters by at least 25 percent.
According to Ghazarian, who also owns a cargo shipment company, a
single truck laden with agricultural products takes at least 23 days
to reach Russia through the rail-ferry link. Going through Upper Lars
will cut shipping time by half, he told journalists.
Tigran Avetisian, Sargis Harutyunyan
http://www.azatutyun.am/content/artic le/1972669.html
02.03.2010
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian welcomed on Tuesday the reopening
of Georgia's main border crossing with Russia and confirmed reports
that a Russian-Georgian agreement to that effect was reached under
Armenian mediation.
"I can confirm that [Russian-Georgian] negotiations indeed took place
in Armenia and with Armenia's mediation," Nalbandian told journalists.
"And now that the checkpoint is operational it can be said that that
[agreement] is a big success for Russia and Georgia in the first
instance and, of course, for Armenia as well."
Russian and Georgian officials reportedly held indirect negotiations
in Yerevan last October. Their governments announced in late December
that they have agreed to reopen the Upper Lars crossing on March 1.
Traffic through the narrow pass in the Caucasus Mountains resumed as
planned on Monday.
Upper Lars is the only land border crossing that does not go through
Georgia's Russian-backed breakaway regions of South Ossetia and
Abkhazia. It served as Armenia's sole overland route to the former
Soviet Union and Europe until being controversially shut down by the
Russian authorities in June 2006, at the height of a Russian-Georgian
spy scandal.
With Russian-Georgian trade having steadily declined over the past
decade, the Upper Lars closure primarily hit trading companies shipping
goods to and from Armenia. Armenian exporters of agricultural produce
were particularly reliant on the crossing. They had to re-route their
deliveries through the more expensive and time-consuming rail-ferry
services between Georgia and Russia and Ukraine.
Arsen Ghazarian, chairman of the Armenian Union of Industrialists
and Entrepreneurs, predicted on Monday the reopening of the
Russian-Georgian border will boost exports of Armenian fruits and
vegetables already this year. He said it would reduce transportation
costs incurred by the exporters by at least 25 percent.
According to Ghazarian, who also owns a cargo shipment company, a
single truck laden with agricultural products takes at least 23 days
to reach Russia through the rail-ferry link. Going through Upper Lars
will cut shipping time by half, he told journalists.