Armenia's leadership and Russian Railways to discuss railway concession issues

Oleg Belozerov, CEO and chairman of the board of the Russian Railways company, will visit Armenia next week to discuss the issue of the railway concession.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this at a briefing in the government.

The agreement on his visit was reached at the previous session of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council (in August — ed.).

"We will hold a working discussion and draw certain conclusions from its results. But until the meeting has taken place, I cannot say what its results will be," he said.

Answering a question about the Russian side's proposals to restore the border railway junctions with Turkey and Azerbaijan (on the Akhurik and Yeraskh sections), voiced by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk, the prime minister added that one of the Kazakh companies is also interested in carrying out these works.

"We will discuss all these issues," the prime minister added.

Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that Armenia should use the transit potential of both the future railway through the Meghri region (the TRIPP project with U.S. participation) and the railway from Yeraskh to Gyumri (operated by the South Caucasus Railway company, a subsidiary of Russian Railways). But the Armenian government, he said, is receiving signals from international business that the Yeraskh–Gyumri route is problematic for them, since they do not want to deal with a Russian company that they "consider toxic." According to the Armenian prime minister, so that the republic does not miss out on international transit opportunities (after the opening of the borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan), it would be better to hand over the concession for Armenia's railways to a mutually acceptable (for Armenia and Russia) third party, since the Russian factor "deprives Armenia of competitive advantages in terms of railway development."

Source: Sputnik Armenia