Armenian, Georgian MPs meet in Armenian town for conference

The Armenian-Georgian inter-parliamentary relations were on the agenda of a joint conference held by both countries’ legislators in the town of Alaverdi (Lori region) this week-end.

The event, entitled Prospects of Armenian-Georgian Inter-parliamentary Relations, focused on railway re-operation issues and the future economic regime with Georgia (which is heading towards association with Europe).

Speaking to Tert.am, Tevan Poghosyan, an opposition MP from the Heritage party, said the Georgians have promised to focus on the the railway issue in more detail in future.

“For them, naturally, that remains within the trading frameworks. That may even be of interest,” he noted.

As for Abkhazia’s possible reaction, the opposition MP added, “When we were talking 1.5 year ago, Abkhazia opposed, saying that the Georgian side may have an influence. But even our press has now said that the Abkhazian authorities have already expressed support to considering the issue,” he added.

The conference opening was attended by the speakers of the Armenian and Armenian parliaments, Hovik Abrahamyan and David Usupashvili, as well as representatives of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

The participants discussed the possible border obstacles that the countries may face after Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Customs Union. It was particularly agreed to consider the Armenian-Georgian border a as boundary between the CU member-states and the countries in the “economic domain of association”.

It comes after Georgia initialed an association agreement with the EU at the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius in late November.

Khachatur Kokobelyan, a lawmaker of the opposition Free Democrats party who also attended the conference, confirmed that the question was addressed at the meeting. “Hence it’s natural and very important that the Armenian-Georgian relations be free from wrinkles. All the possible problems were discussed mutually; there was a great willingness both by the Georgian and the Armenian sides. The existing problems in the transport and railway sectors and product turnover were discussed,” he told our correspondent.

The turnover between Georgia and Armenia amounts to $130,000 today, twice less than the Armenia-Turkey turnover.

“I have to state that there was mutual a willingness to enable Armenia and Georgia to mitigate the possible difficulties related to the association [process] and the Customs Union,” he said, promising that the sides will be better prepared by the next meeting to propose specific solutions.

As for bilateral cooperation efforts, Artak Zakaryan, the chairman of the Armenian National Assembly’s Foreign Relations Committee, said the sides have already agreed that the joint efforts have been very weak in the past 5-6 years.

“And now the sides express willingness to develop relations and increase the frequency of the dialogues,” he told Tert.am.

The Armenian and Georgian parliaments’ foreign relations committees are going to issue a statement on the conference later today.