China to give Armenia 70m yuan in aid

YEREVAN -- China agreed Friday to give Armenia a grant of 70 million yuan ($11.2 million) as part of an economic and technical partnership agreement.

The agreement was signed between Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Manassarian and Chinese Charge d'Affaires Chao Mingwen.

Armenia will use the aid to re-equip its customs services, but the biggest portion of the grant will go to establishing a school that will have teaching Chinese as a specialty.

China has been providing aid to Armenia since 1999 under the economic and technical partnership. In 2012, Armenia and China marked the 20th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations.