ArmInfo. Despite the traditionally high political level of the Armenian-Iranian relations, the trade and economic sphere between them is traditionally faulty. Expert in Iranian studies Armen Vardanyan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
"Unfortunately, the potential in this direction has been realized only partially. As a result, the volume of trade and economic turnover did not exceed 300, and in recent years - up to half a billion US dollars. Against the backdrop of such progress, Yerevan and Tehran are going to bring it to a billion," he remarked.
According to the expert, this state of affairs is due to both objective and subjective reasons. According to him, one of the objective reasons is the international sanctions against Tehran, and the subjective reason is the absence of Yerevan's initiative and the non-consequential policy. Nevertheless, against the background of the intensification of mutual visits observed in recent months, Vardanyan sees opportunities for a change in the situation described above.
In this light, he expressed hope that many joint Armenian-Iranian projects that are still only on paper will enter at least the initial stage of implementation. The expert explains Iran's recent readiness to supply gas to Armenia from Turkmenistan under a swap scheme, expressed by Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji during his Yerevan visit, as part of Tehran's intentions to increase the total volume of its own energy exports. And in the expert's opinion Armenia, which uses the gas pipeline from Iran by only 20%, is a natural candidate of such intentions.
Noting the unprofitability of increasing direct supplies of Iranian gas to Armenia due to its higher cost than Russian gas, Vardanyan noted the profitability of increasing supplies in exchange for electricity, which, in his opinion, is in the interests of Gazprom Armenia as well. Meanwhile, this scheme, one way or another, will allow Armenia to diversify Russian supplies of "blue fuel", which, among other things, will increase the country's energy security.
"One way or another, but this program must be coordinated with the Russian Federation, which owns not only the pipeline from Iran, but also the entire gas infrastructure of Armenia. The only alternative is the construction of new infrastructures, which requires considerable financial investments and time. In the light of the statement of Iranian Minister Owji, I do not rule out that swap supplies of Turkmen gas to Armenia by Tehran and Moscow have already been agreed," Vardanyan summed up.
