29/7 Tass 356
YEREVAN, July 29 (Itar-Tass) — Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said his republic views Poland as a friendly state, reliable partner and a bearer of common values, on which lasting and indestructible friendship is built.
Sargsyan said so on Thursday after a meeting with his Polish colleague Bronislaw Komorowski who had arrived on an official visit.
“Poland is a traditionally friendly country for Armenia, with which we can discuss problems freely and calmly and hope for support,” Serzh Sargsyan said.
According to the republic’s leader, “the Polish-Armenian dialogue, put on the inter-state basis, develops and expands year in and year out, embracing numerous cooperation guidelines.”
In the course of the talks between the leaders of the two countries, they “addressed the development of trade and economic relations.”
Sargsyan said the two countries could also cooperate in agriculture, tourism and power engineering.
The Armenian president discussed with Komorowski “the prospects for cooperation with the framework of the European Union and Armenia’s participation in the EU’s Eastern Partnership program, co-authored and actively conducted by Poland.”
“For Poland, and also for your region this point is very important because of Poland’ s current European Union presidency. For Armenia, it is important because the country is in the process of Euro-integration,” Komorowski said.
He underlined that Poland was absolutely open for Armenia and that it was ready help in the process of Euro-integration and share its experience.
“We’re foremost expecting from the Warsaw summit differentiated approaches and opinions of the same kind. We’d like the principle of greater assistance for greater progress be applied in the EU’s Eastern Partnership program,” the Armenian leader said.
After the talks, the parties signed an inter-governmental program of cooperation in the fields of culture, education and science for 2011-2013, an inter-departmental memorandum of cooperation in veterinary medicine and a memorandum of understanding between the Armenian development agency and the Polish Information and Foreign Investments Agency.
“Despite the close political cooperation, trade turnover between Armenia and Poland is very insignificant, and there are practically no Polish investments in the Armenian economy,” Armenia’s Deputy Economics Minister Ara Petrosyan said.
Last year, two-way trade was worth 21.2 million dollars, including 1.9 million dollars of Armenian exports to Poland. Poland’s exports to Armenia amounted to 19.2 million dollars in 2010. There are 12 companies with Polish stakes operating in Armenia.
“Armenia has created a favorable investment climate and good pre-requisites for Polish investments,” the Armenian deputy economics minister said.