No political motive in accumulations in Lars border checkpoint – Minister

Representatives of Russian Transport Ministry, customs and border bodies were in Georgia’s Lars border checkpoint to find engineering solutions for expanding it, Armenia’s Transport, Communication and IT Minister Ashot Hakobyan said at a news conference today, adding that he learnt about it in Georgia while visiting the checkpoint during accumulations.

“The geographic position there does not allow building unlimited checkpoints. We have got convinced that there is no political motive,” the minister said.

“While building Lars road no one calculated the possibility of passing to Russia’s territory from Turkey or that Batumi would have become such a big tourist center,” Hakobyan stressed.

The minister said these accumulations are not only Armenian drivers’ problems, it is a problem in general and relates to Armenians only by 25%.

As to having an alternative to Lars, the minister said that it relates only to cargo transportation and it is South Ossetia’s sector.

“Currently Russian and Georgian sides are conducting negotiations with Swiss SGS company for it to organize our cargo transportation in this sector,” Hakobyan stressed.

He added that the issue is between Armenia’s neighboring countries – Georgia and Russia.