US to provide equal aid to Azerbaijan, Armenia

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Feb 9 2005

Baku, February 8, AssA-Irada — The United States, in its 2006 draft
state budget, allocated $5,000,000 and $750,000 in assistance under the
“foreign military funding” and “international military education and
training” provisions respectively to Azerbaijan and Armenia each. At
the same time, the document states that if a country violates the
territorial integrity of another, US assistance will be withdrawn.

The draft state budget, forwarded by President George Bush to the US
Congress on Monday, designates a total of $482 million in assistance to
the former Soviet Union countries. The funds will be allocated through
the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for economic and
democratic transition programmes. The Bush administration believes that
these funds are also needed for the support of Central Asian states,
as well as Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, of the anti-terror campaign
and for regional security issues.

The draft budget also envisages increasing funding for foreign
assistance programmes by 14%. The figure amounts to $16.2 billion in
the current fiscal year.

In the draft budget, the Bush administration also focused on expanding
diplomatic and other activity of the US Department of State in Islamic
countries. It also suggested that a library and information centres
entitled “America-oriented” be set up in the Middle East countries
and other Islamic states.*

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress