November 30, 2006 - 14:31 AMT
Speaking of Conveying Iran-Armenia Gas Pipeline to Any Operator Premature
Designating Armenia-Russia relations with term "strategic partnership" evidences very high level of relations in almost all fields, Armenian PM Andranik Margaryan stated in an interview with the Commersant. In his words, close interaction in the political, military, trade and economic, scientific and technical, humanitarian fields, common notion of the world order, the high level of coordination at the international arena, observation of national interests underlie the strategic partnership of Armenia and Russia. "I would not like to mark the gas sphere as the corner stone of our strategic cooperation. Gas is only one sphere of energy cooperation between Armenia and Russia. At the same time our strategic partnership should be protected against current political and economic situation and should rest on the logic of long-term interaction," Margaryan remarked. Answering a question on possible passing of Iran-Armenia gas pipeline to Gazprom control, the PM said, "The building of the pipeline is not complete yet and speaking of conveying it to any operator, including Gazprom, is premature." The Iran-Armenia gas pipeline is one of key bilateral energy projects. The first part of the gas pipeline - the Meghri-Kajaran segment making 39.5 km - will open soon.