BBC Monitoring

Excerpt from report in English by Syrian News Agency SANA website

Damascus, 8 November: Syria and Armenia on Thursday [8 November] signed a cooperation agreement and mutual assistance in the filed of customs affairs and a programme of cooperation between the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) and the Armenian news Agency (ARMENPRESS) at the conclusion of the fourth session of the joint Syrian-Armenian Committee for Economic, Trade, Scientific and technical Cooperation.

The customs agreement was signed by Minister of Finance Dr Muhammad al-Husayn from the Syrian side and Minister of Agriculture David Lukian from the Armenian side. Minister of Information Dr Muhsin Bilal signed the programme of cooperation between SANA and ARMENPRESS from the Syrian side while Minister Lukian signed the document.

A new agreement on culture cooperation was also signed between Culture Ministries Of the two countries for 2008-2009 and 2010. It was signed from the Syrian side by Dr Ali al-Qayim, Assistant Minister of Culture and Armenian Deputy! Minister of Culture kakik Kiorjian.

[passage omitted describing other bilateral cooperation agreements]

Source: SANA news agency website, Damascus in English 8 Nov 07