Armenia is interested in the integration processes within the CIS expanse, and it stands ready to stimulate them because Russia is our strategic ally and it has a huge and promising market. Armenia’s Premier Tigran Sargsyan said this, in an interview with Moskovskiye Novosti daily of Russia, responding to the query as to whether Armenia could become a Customs Union member, in the case when it does not border Russia.

“The peculiarity of Armenia lies [on the fact] that our economy differs from the structure of the Customs Union countries, where there are considerable energy resources and a policy of protecting domestic producers is conducted—but by way of very high customs [tax] rates. Overall, the [customs] duties are double than in Armenia. Armenia is one of the first CIS countries to become a World Trade Organization member, and this brings a particular feature to our relations with the Customs Union,” the PM noted.                     

Sargsyan stated that, considering the historical commonalities between the Armenian and the Russian people, the bilateral ties are at the level of strategic interaction.  

“We observe that Russia is interested in having a strong ally, represented by Armenia, in the Caucasus. Russia takes first place in the investments into our economy; [here we are not] even speaking about the cooperation in the military sector,” Armenia’s PM stated.