ArmInfo. Russia learned about the possible transfer of the Russian railway concession to Armenia from colleagues in other countries; no one has discussed it directly with Moscow. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk told Vesti.
According to him, this is a very interesting story because no one is discussing the transfer of the concession with the Russian Federation. "At least, until today, no one has. And we only know about it from our colleagues in other countries. Sometimes people from the United Arab Emirates contact us, sometimes people in Kazakhstan talk to us about it, but no one talks to us about our concession. "This is very interesting," Overchuk stated.
On March 26, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that Yerevan would not be opposed to transferring the concession for the management of the republic's railways to a Kazakh company if an agreement on this issue is reached with Russia. Back in February of this year, Pashinyan began raising the issue of transferring the Russian concession to a third friendly party. He named Kazakhstan, the UAE, and Qatar as options. He argued that Yerevan was allegedly losing its competitive advantages and that the railway issue should be resolved with Russia "in a friendly, fraternal manner."
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called Nikol Pashinyan's statement that the Russian concession management of Armenian railways creates competitive costs for the Armenian side strange. She emphasized that the Russian operator is a structure that does not deprive the Republic of Armenia of competitive advantages, but, on the contrary, creates them.
As a reminder, South Caucasus Railways CJSC is a wholly owned subsidiary of OJSC Russian Railways. On February 13, 2008, in Yerevan, Russian Railways OJSC and the Republic of Armenia signed a concession agreement transferring the Republic's rail transport system to South Caucasus Railways CJSC.
According to the agreement, the concession agreement is for 30 years, with the right to extend it for an additional 10 years after the first twenty years of operation by mutual agreement of the parties. South Caucasus Railways CJSC's objectives include modernizing the Republic of Armenia's railway infrastructure, developing cooperation with Armenia's neighboring countries, and developing domestic and international passenger and freight service. The Company's investment totals $572 million. South Caucasus Railways CJSC commenced operations on June 1, 2008.
