USA want to see improvement in Armenian parliamentary election: American
diplomat

Arminfo
2007-04-16 10:41:00

The USA want to see an improvement in the Armenian parliamentary
election, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian
affairs Daniel Fried said at a press- conference in Washington in
response to ArmInfo correspondent’s question. He said that the USA do
not expect perfection. "We don’t expect to go from deeply flawed to
perfect, but we do expect to see substantial forward progress. That is
important. Armenia, given the strength of the Armenian Diaspora and
given Armenia’s links to the West, frankly, you ought to be way ahead
of Georgia. But I ask you, are you in terms of democratic reforms?
That’s a rhetorical question. I’m not asking for an answer. But think
about that. Armenia should be doing better. It should be a leader. It
should be a prospering country. It has all the ingredients. And lack
of oil and gas is not necessarily a curse. Assistant Secretary Fried:
Yes, but a lot of countries – Armenia is not blockaded. It has access
through Georgia. It’s not as if it has no access to the outside
world. We hope that more is done", D. Fried concluded.