CONGRESS TO REDUCE FOREIGN AID TO ARMENIA TO $58.5 MLN

YERKIR
18.12.2007 16:24

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Negotiators representing the U.S. House and Senate
appear to have agreed upon Fiscal Year 2008 assistance figures
for Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, both at levels less than last
year, as part of a far-reaching agreement on foreign aid and other
appropriations measures that is set to be adopted soon by both houses
of Congress, reported the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA).

The agreement includes $58.5 million in assistance to Armenia and
$3 million in direct aid to Nagorno Karabakh. It also reverses the
Administration’s latest bid to retreat from its 2001 pledge to maintain
in military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"We are troubled by the reductions in aid to Armenia and Nagorno
Karabakh, particularly in light of the ongoing economic costs of the
Turkish and Azerbaijani blockades, as well as Baku’s increasingly
violent rhetoric about restarting its war against the Armenians,"
said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "We thank all of our
friends in the appropriations process who, working against significant
competing budgetary pressures."

In addition to the Armenia and Karabakh allocations, the omnibus
aid bill also includes $50.5 million for Georgia and $19 million
for Azerbaijan.

Millennium Challenge Account funding is set for $1.5 billion, half
of President Bush’s request.