YEREVAN, April 17. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday, April 17, congratulated Ovik Abramyan on his appointment as the new prime minister of Armenia.

“Russia and Armenia are bound by relations of allies and strategic partners based on the traditions of friendship between our people,” Medvedev said his message to Abramyan.

He is “convinced that further development of bilateral cooperation in such fields as trade, economy, investment, science and technology, and the implementation of new major joint projects as well as full participation of Armenian partners in the process of Eurasian integration fully serve the interests of our states”.

Medvedev reiterated he is “ready for constructive work” with Abramyan “on all pressing issues of interaction between the governments of Russia and Armenia”.

Abramyan’s predecessor Tigran Sargsyan resigned on April 3. The resignation was announced at a meeting of the ruling Republican Party leaders’ meeting in Yerevan.

He tendered resignation to President Serzh Sargsyan a month earlier but it was put away pending Armenia’s accession to the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia and the Republican Party’s economic forum on this topic.

In his letter of resignation, Sargsyan wrote that “the decision is timely and well considered”.

“This is a balanced decision that was not made on the spur of the moment,” Sharmazanov said.

He said no candidates for premiership or the composition of a new government had been discussed at the party meeting.

On April 2, the Constitutional Court ruled that some of the provisions in the government-initiated pension reform plan were running counter to the Constitution. The judgment allowed some politicians to say that Sargsyan’s resignation was inevitable.

The president has not accepted the resignation yet. Once the prime minister resigns, his whole government steps down with him. Under the Constitution, a new prime minister has to be appointed within ten days after the government’s resignation. A new government has to be appointed within 20 days after the appointment of the prime minister.

Sargsyan was reappointed as prime minister in May 2013.