Pashinyan announced the creation of a working group with the Russian Federation to discuss railways

Armenia and Russian Railways (RZD) have agreed to establish a working group that will assess how to increase the competitiveness of Armenian railways within three months. This was stated on October 15 by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at a briefing after a government meeting.

"The task is to make our railway competitive. Our analysis shows that changing the format of concession management, that is, involving third countries, may be a rational solution for this," Sputnik quoted him as saying. Armenia.

According to Pashinyan, the head of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov arrived in Yerevan at the invitation of the Prime Minister to discuss the issues that have arisen. The head of the Armenian government stressed that Armenia has no fundamental problems with the Russian concession for the management of the country's railways.

At the same time, the positions of the parties differ in assessing the impact of Western sanctions on the operation of the railway infrastructure. The Russian side believes that the restrictions do not hinder its functioning, while the Armenian side sees them as a problem.

Russian Railways declared its openness to dialogue with the Armenian government and its readiness to jointly assess the effectiveness of the current concession agreement. Earlier, Belozerov noted that the issue of maintaining the agreement was not discussed at the meeting with Pashinyan.

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On October 14, Russian Railways expressed its intention to adhere firmly to the terms of the concession agreement on the management of Armenia's railways. Following the meeting between Belozerov and Pashinyan, the parties agreed to form a joint working group that will explore the possibilities of developing transit communications using the Yerevan railway network.

Speaking to Izvestia on September 1, the head of Russian Railways stated that the Russian side was in constant contact with the Armenian side and that it was complying with all its obligations under the agreement. He also noted that no political events affect the bilateral cooperation between the countries, the work continues.