The deputy prime ministers of Russia and Armenia on Friday welcomed the rapid and continued growth in trade between Russia and Armenia, which contrasts with increased tensions between the two long-time allies.
“Our trade and economic relations continue to develop,” Alexei Overchuk, Russia’s deputy prime minister, said at a meeting in Moscow of a Russian-Armenian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation. “I will at least say that trade between our two countries is reaching new records.
Its total amount more than doubled to $10.2 billion in the first ten months of this year, Overchuk added. The Armenian Statistical Committee reported an even higher figure: almost $10.9 billion, an increase of 91% compared to the same period in 2023.
“The nearly doubling of trade is impressive,” Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian told reporters after the commission session co-chaired by him and Overchuk. “We hope that further double-digit growth will be recorded at the next commission meeting.
An Armenian government statement quotes Grigorian as saying during the meeting: “I would like to once again reaffirm our firm commitment to […] fully realize the existing potential for the coherent development of cooperation between Armenia and Russia.”
The two deputy prime ministers said they discussed ways to further facilitate trade ties between their countries. Mr. Overchuk raised “a number of issues related to improving transport links between Armenia and Russia.”
Bilateral trade has soared since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022, with Armenian entrepreneurs taking advantage of Western sanctions against Moscow to re-export many Western-made products to Russia.
Furthermore, Armenia appears to have become a gateway this year for Russian gold and diamond exports to global markets and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in particular. This is the main driver of the doubling of trade between Russia and Armenia recorded between January and October 2024.
Armenian government data shows that Russian exports to Armenia tripled during this ten-month period to almost $8.3 billion. The South Caucasus country, meanwhile, increased its exports to the UAE sixfold, worth around $4.9 billion.
Russian officials regularly highlight the benefits for the Armenian economy of tariff-free access to the vast Russian market, guaranteed by membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Some of them warned that Armenia risks losing not only this access, but also a significant discount on the price of Russian natural gas if Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's government continues to reorient the country toward the West.
Pashinian froze Armenia's membership in another Russian-led bloc, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and declared its formal withdrawal from the military alliance of ex-Soviet states was only a matter of time. But he was careful not to signal the possible exit from the UEE.
Pashinian praised the trade bloc when he chaired a meeting of member state prime ministers in Moscow last week. An Armenian deputy economy minister previously noted that Armenia's annual exports to other EAEU member states have increased more than tenfold since the country joined the bloc in 2015. Russia has absorbed the majority of these exports.
Reprinted with permission from RFE/RL Copyright(c)2007 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.1201 Connecticut Ave, t N.W. Washington DC 20
