BY KAREN GHAZARYAN
YEREVAN (ArmRadio)—Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili has arrived in Armenia for a two-day official visit at the invitation of Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian. After a meeting at the Presidential Palace, the leaders of the two countries made a statement for the press.
Presidents Sarkisian and Margvelashvili stressed their commitment to continue to work in the spirit of traditional friendship and harmony between the two countries. The Presidents said they held productive talks on all issues on the bilateral agenda.
“Armenia traditionally attaches great importance to the development of good-neighborly relations with Georgia,” President Sarkisian said. According to him, the consistent reinforcement of cooperation is one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign agenda.
“The recent frequent visits are an indicator of high-level political dialogue,” the Armenian President said, adding that “high-level political dialogue is the best catalyst for the expansion of economic cooperation.”
The two Presidents voiced confidence that the 10th sitting of the Armenia-Georgian Inter-Governmental Commission to be convened in Yerevan will provide an opportunity to discuss the process of implementation of earlier agreements and outline the perspectives of bilateral economic cooperation.
Sarkisian said they referred to the regional infrastructure projects as an important guarantee for ensuring stability and security in the region.
Both leaders agree that the comprehensive settlement of all conflicts is possible only in a peaceful way, in compliance with the principles of international law.
Having visited the three neighboring countries, the Georgian President concludes that the neighbors are interested in the development of relations with Georgia, which meets the Georgian objectives and foreign policy priorities.
President Sarkisian expressed confidence that the Georgian President’s visit would give new impetus to the reinforcement of friendly relations. Margvelashvili said he has invited the Armenian President to Georgia and voiced confidence that it will provide another opportunity for the development and deepening of bilateral ties.
President Margvelashvili also visited Dzidzernagapert Memorial accompanied by other Georgian and Armenian officials.
The Georgian delegation laid a wreath at the Armenian Genocide memorial and honored the memory of the victims.
President Margvelashvili planted a fir tree at the Memorial Alley at Dzidzernagapert.
Good. It’s important to have good relations with the two relevant countries with which we share immediate borders. Instead of talking about “cutting up” either of them, we should work on making sure we have a good footing with both Georgia and Iran, and make our success be in tandem with theirs as well as others. Putting all of your faith in one country, without taking into account that nothing is forever,and that things change, is an extremely dangerous gamble and could potentially be very costly. Armenia should have good and cooperative relations with everyone, but it should also be able to say no to foreigners when it is immediately against our interests.
With Georgia going in a completely different direction than Armenia in terms of geopolitical orientation and internal affairs, I think it’ll be beneficial to Armenia to have an actual democratic, modern and European state on its frontier. I hope they get the democratic state they’re trying to build. Of course, it’ll be a very, very long time until that happens, but in about 50 or 60 years, the differences will be much more explicit. I only hope that we can take after their example and at the very least, begin to change the way we see things in our country in terms of what is acceptable conduct for a politician to have.
It looks very promising,And this is very important for both neghbouring countries.
That’s a good thing. We should improve our relation with Georgia that will only do us good. It can’t harm us in any way.
Margvelashvili may prove to be a reliable friend. He has lived in Armenia for some time and has a very close relationship with Armenians.
Transferring gas from Iran to Armenia and into the Black Sea may also curb Georgia’s dependence on the Turkic states and allow it to make more balanced foreign policy decisions, which in turn, could be beneficial for us. For one it would give Armenia a stake in Georgia’s gas market by being a transit country to Tbillsi and it would also boost our importance for them and the stability of the region when we can help provide alternatives to Azeri dominance in the South Caucasian market.
It’s a shame we’re going to have tremendous hurdles to face because Mother Russia (God protect our alliance and save it from enemies, foreign and domestic) will most likely thwart every attempt at getting that to happen. Its goal is to isolate us, and I’m sure every attempt at thwarting this small little window of hope will be made not only by Russia, but by our own citizens who are so mentally and emotionally devoted to the Kremlin that they are willing to put a gun to their own heads for someone else’s sake. We will be deprived of every single potentially lucrative deal because of incompetence and self-interested politicians, if it’s even safe to call them that.
Here is where our interests are conflicting: transporting Iranian gas to Georgia via Armenia would put the three countries on the same page in terms of resources, and would challenge Russia’s role in this field. Unfortunately, I’m not optimistic. Not only are our idiots in the government busy trying to deplete the country by sending them to beautify Russia’s peripheries, but these goons don’t have the nation’s interests at heart as they have clearly exchanged political monopoly for Armenia’s independent decision making abilities on issues as critical as gas for the next 30 years. How can anyone support these people, I don’t know.