Friday, 10 February 2006
Today Republic of Armenia Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan has received U.S. Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Armenia H.E. John Evans and Director of United States Agency of International Development Mr. Robin Phillips.
The meeting agenda included discussion of matters relating to the assistance rendered to Armenia by the Government of the United States, including the progress in the joint endeavors carried out with the Millenium Challenges Corporation over the last period. Having stressed that the Armenian component of the Millenium Challenges program opened vast opportunities, Ambassador Evans said to be hopeful that this program would be effective enough, especially in terms of providing support to rural population in Armenia. "We have decided that the work under the Armenian program should be continued and an agreement will most probably be signed before next January 27" - Ambassador Evans said. He further noted that in spite of the concerns expressed by the American side with regard to certain questions raised in the period following the Armenian referendum on constitutional amendments, the government of the United States was prepared to continue backing Armenia with the development and promotion of democratic institutions, bearing in mind that that the Millenium Challenges program featured important pre-requisites: fair management, investment in the development of human resources and efforts towards the fostering of economic growth. The ambassador emphasized the importance of holding free and fair legislative and presidential elections in 2007-2008 and expressed the willingness of Government United States to finance technical assistance programs to that effect.
In his turn, Repubic of Armenia Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan took the opportunity to thank the Millenium Challenges Corporation for the assistance provided so far and noted that Armenia was going to receive considerable economic support as result of these efforts. The Prime Minister stressed that the Armenian authorities, including the coalition, had the needed political will and had already declared their readiness to start work for solving the existing problems in terms of eliminating the above-mentioned shortcomings before the forthcoming elections. "The government of the Republic of Armenia is prepared to cooperate with all the parties interested, including the Government of the United States, so as to implement the program proposed for the strengthening and development of democracy in Armenia by discussing the forms and mechanisms of this help which should quite naturally be in full harmony with Armenian laws," - the Head of Armenian Government said.
Having agreed with what the Prime Minister had said, Ambassador Evans noted that the United States government could witness the strengthening of democracy in Armenia through the build-up of appropriate capacity and a definite movement along the path of evolutionary progress and was standing ready to render comprehensive assistance to our country with the achievement of its goals.
