World economic crisis and the South Caucasus

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian thinks that the world economic crisis will increase the role of the South Caucasus. He stated this during his appearance at the Munich conference on Security Issues.

According to Sarkisian the South Caucasus could provide a new model of development of energy supply and transportation. According to him in the past many of the decisions made concerning resources and transportation were not optimal; today there is no room for irrational expenditure of resources.

Sarkisian thinks that economically effective decisions should be made, and that the construction of railways, pipelines and so on for political rather than economic reasons will come to an end. The statement is a reference to several projects in which the interests of Armenia were ignored, which bypassed Armenia due to its occupation of Azeri territory. Sarkisian’s position implies that Armenia is seeking to break its isolation from regional projects.