US diplomat notes Armenia’s interest in having “up-to-date” nuclear plant

Interfax-AVN military news agency website, Moscow
16 Mar 06

Yerevan, 16 March: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev have expressed their willingness to continue
contributing to efforts to reach a peace agreement on Nagornyy Karabakh
during their recent negotiations in France, US Assistant Secretary of
State Daniel Fried said at a news conference in Yerevan on Thursday
[16 March].

Fried disagreed that the talks between Kocharyan and Aliyev in
Rambouillet on 10-11 February drove the negotiating process into a
dead end.

Attempts are currently being made to see in which direction the
settlement process could now move, he said.

During his visit to the region, Fried said he addressed ways of
settling the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, energy security and prospects
for the region’s development.

The US believes it would be useful to look into the future in light
of the current problems in the South Caucasus to see how the region
is to develop on the whole and how democracy and economic reforms
will proceed there.

The US does not rule out that nuclear energy could be used to diversify
energy supplies in the region, he said.

The diplomat said he is aware of Armenia’s interest in building a new
safe and up-to-date nuclear power plant and that he would inform his
leadership in Washington of this.