Minister Vartan Oskanian interviewed by Second Armenian TV Channel

17.03.2006 12:20

Question: Mr. Oskanian, what issues did you discuss with the high-level
representatives of the State Department?

Oskanian: Today, in our meeting with the high-level representatives
of the US State Dept, we focused on three areas: bilateral issues,
energy-related issues and of course the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
resolution process.

Regarding the first, the upcoming Millennium Challenge Compact signing
ceremony is of course uppermost in everyone’s mind. The Minister
of Finance will sign the compact in Washington on March 27. I’ll be
present during the ceremony. We are truly fortunate to have these kinds
of significant resources made available to us. This is a very serious
program that offers us the opportunity to make huge infrastructure
improvements, and it’s related directly to our democratization
process. This program will put Armenia-US relations at a new level.

Energy issues, too, are obviously, very important today. It was
interesting to hear the US thinking on this subject. For Armenia, the
diversification of energy sources is a matter of utmost priority. Our
energy security depends on our being able to maintain the nuclear
resource, and we discussed all of these topics.

Finally, the Nagorno Karabakh issue: Here the fundamental issue is that
negotiations continue. After Rambouillet and the backtracking that we
sensed there, the challenge is to preserve the positive achievements
and build on those. The co-chairs will meet soon and then it will be
clearer what might happen next. Our discussions today revolved around
how we might do that in a way that tries to find solutions for the
deadlocked situation in which we find ourselves today.

Question: What do you make of Aliev’s statements, including those
today, extolling their increasing military capability?

Oskanian: It must be exactly because of their huge military budget
that they have been working overtime at the border and repeatedly
violating the ceasefire. They must have extra bullets to spare.

But let’s look at this from a global context. Today, in the
civilized world, peoples and states don’t compete over the size
of their military budget. That’s not what they take pride in when
they compare themselves with their neighbors. Today, the spheres
of competition are elsewhere. And in all those spheres, Armenia is
ahead of Azerbaijan. So far ahead that there is really no room to
compare. Beginning with the UN’s human development index, Armenia is
ahead of Azerbaijan. The international index that gauges Armenia’s
investment climate puts Armenia way ahead of Azerbaijan. They’re not
even a member of the WTO. There is no comparison in level of democratic
development, human rights protections or press freedoms. In indexes
that measure economic freedoms and development, and transparency and
gains in the battle against corruption, Armenia is disproportionately
better than Azerbaijan. Despite the fact that it’s how many years
now that Azerbaijan produces 400,000 barrels of oil, the per capita
income in Azerbaijan still hasn’t reached Armenia’s. It is better that
Azerbaijan tries to reach Armenia’s levels in these fields, than try
to compete and take pride in being ahead with its military capacity.