Cumulative Russian investments in Armenia exceed $2.1 billion

YEREVAN, April 2. /ARKA/. To date Russia has been the leading foreign investor in the Armenian economy, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said in an interview with the Russian-language newspaper 'Novoye Vremya' published in Armenia.

He said according to Armenian official data, at the end of the third quarter of 2020, the cumulative Russian investments in Armenia exceeded $2.1 billion, or 40% of total foreign investments. Direct Russian investments stood at $1.7 billion or 41.7% of the total.

"Russia remains one of the leading trade partners of Armenia, accounting for almost a third of its foreign trade turnover. In 2020, due to the pandemic, the trade turnover between our countries slightly decreased. But this drop is not dramatic," Rudenko said.

'Direct financial assistance from Russia to assist the victims in Nagorno-Karabakh is currently about $15 million,' Andrei Rudenko said.

He noted that the Russian peacekeeping contingent and the Humanitarian Response Center deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh are the guarantors of its security and stability.

Rudenko added that the trilateral working group chaired by the Deputy Prime Ministers of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan set up to deal with the unblocking economic and transport communications in the region is creating conditions for the restoration of normal life in the South Caucasus to turn it into a territory of mutual trust, security and prosperity. -0-