Zakharova: South Caucasus Railway has faithfully fulfilled its  concession obligations for years

ArmInfo.For many years, South Caucasus Railways CJSC has been faithfully fulfilling the terms of the concession agreement with Armenia, as stated by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova during a weekly briefing on April 1. She was addressing the issue of the possible transfer of the Russian concession for Armenian railways to Kazakhstan.

The Russian diplomat recalled that on March 30, Russian Transport  Minister Andrei Nikitin stated that Russia is not negotiating with  either Yerevan or Astana to transfer the concession for managing  Armenian railways to Kazakhstan. "It's very important that this  expert statement was made at the expert level. I would also like to  remind you that the term of the concession agreement,  signed in  2008, is 30 years, with the option to extend it for another 10 years.  For many years, South Caucasus Railways has faithfully fulfilled the  terms of this agreement, and Russia's investment in the country's  railway infrastructure has amounted to more than 30 billion rubles,"  Zakharova said.

In  response to a question about whether this issue would be on the  agenda of today's talks between the Armenian and Russian leaders in  Moscow, Zakharova noted that the Kremlin traditionally comments on  such matters.

On March 26, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that  Yerevan would not object to transferring the concession for the  management of the republic's railways to a Kazakh company if an  agreement on this issue could be reached with Russia. In February of  this year, Pashinyan began raising the issue of transferring the  Russian concession to a third friendly party. He mentioned  Kazakhstan, the UAE, and Qatar as possible options. He argued that  Yerevan was 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 disadvantages for the Armenian  side "strange." She emphasized that the Russian operator is an entity  that does not deprive the Republic of Armenia of competitive  advantages, but, on the contrary, creates them.

Recall, the South Caucasus Railways CJSC is a subsidiary owned by the  Russian Railways OJSC. On February 13, 2008, a concession agreement  was signed in Yerevan between Russian Railways and the Republic of  Armenia transferring the Republic's rail transport system to the  management of South Caucasus Railways (SCR).

According to the agreement, the concession management term is 30  years, with the right to extend it for an additional 10 years after  the first 20 years of operation by mutual agreement of the parties.  SCR's responsibilities include modernizing Armenia's railway  infrastructure, developing cooperation with neighboring countries,  and developing domestic and international passenger and freight  service. The Company's investment totals $572 million. SCR started  its operations on June 1, 2008.