US PASSES TO ARMENIA STATE-OF-THE-ART BORDER CHECKPOINT

Armenpress

YEREVAN, MAY 19, ARMENPRESS: The U.S. Embassy in Armenia told
Armenpress that on May 18 Ambassador John M. Evans officially
transferred the newly built and equipped state- of the- art border
checkpoint facility at the Bagratashen border with Georgia to Deputy
Foreign Minister Aram Kirakosian.

The checkpoint was built on a US government grant through its Export
Control and Related Border Security Assistance Program (EXBS) for
Armenian Border Guards and National Security Service.

U.S. The U.S. Government invested over $200,000 dollars to provide
the Armenian government with a modern checkpoint facility outfitted
with several computers and monitoring systems to track the movement
of goods and people at the busy border crossing. In the near future,
EXBS plans to grant and install radiation detection and monitoring
equipment to help guard against the illegal transport of dangerous
materials that could be used in weapons of mass destruction.

The Export Control and Related Border Security Assistance Program,
administered by the Department of State and the US Homeland Security
Agency, has been operating in Armenia since the year 2000. The EXBS
Program currently operates in more than 27 countries, and is designed
to strengthen and secure national borders by providing the latest
in interdiction equipment, and by developing the enforcement skills
of both the Border Guards and Customs Service in the fight against
worldwide terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and chemical and
biological warfare agents.

The EXBS Program for Armenia continues to conduct formal training
seminars both locally and in the United States in order to provide
Border Guards and Customs Inspectors with the advanced techniques of
investigation necessary to identify sophisticated nuclear, chemical
and biological weapons.

Over the last several years the EXBS Assistance Program has equipped
the Border Guards and Customs Services of Armenia with various types
of inspection and detection equipment: a radio-communication system,
several types of border sensors, metal detectors, vehicles, computer
equipment, cargo truck scales, and X-ray units. Last year, in addition
to the project at Bagratashen, the EXBS Assistance Program provided
construction funding to upgrade the Border Guards barracks at the
Gogavan Port of Entry, and both Border Guard and Customs training
facilities in Yerevan