Monday, `Upcoming' Armenian-Azeri Summit Discussed In New York US - The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers and international mediators meet in New York, 23Sep2017. Armenia's and Azerbaijan's presidents will likely meet soon, international mediators indicated after holding fresh talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with the foreign ministers of the two countries over the weekend. The U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group met separately and then jointly with Foreign Ministers Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. "The main aim of the consultations was to discuss the current situation in the conflict zone, to explore ways to reinvigorate the negotiation process, and to prepare for the upcoming summit between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan," they said in joint statement. They said they hope that the summit will help the conflicting parties eventually "find compromise solutions to the remaining key settlement issues." "The Ministers expressed their commitment to work with the Co-Chairs to prepare for a successful summit in the near future," added the statement. The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministries confirmed that the New York talks focused on preparations for the planned meeting of Presidents Serzh Sarkisian and Ilham Aliyev. But like the co-chairs, they gave no possible dates for it. It was announced instead that the mediating troika will again tour the conflict zone early next month. Also, Mammadyarov was reported by Azerbaijani news agencies to voice support for "some interesting proposals put forward by the co-chairs for continuing substantive negotiations" on a Karabakh settlement. He did not elaborate. Aliyev and Sarkisian traded fresh recriminations when they addressed the UN General Assembly last week. In particular, Aliyev described his Armenian counterpart as a "war criminal." He also blasted the international community for not helping Azerbaijan regain control over Karabakh. Sarkisian announced in July a "preliminary agreement" on the conduct of his face-to-face talks with Aliyev this fall. "My expectations from the meeting are not big," he said. The two presidents most recently met in May and June 2016 shortly after four-day deadly hostilities around Karabakh that nearly denigrated into an all-out war. They agreed to allow the OSCE to deploy more field observers in the conflict zone and investigate truce violations occurring there. They also hinted at progress towards a peaceful settlement. The peace process again stalled in the following months, however. The Azerbaijani government has since been reluctant to implement the agreed safeguards against renewed fighting, saying that they would cement the status quo. Armenian Government Upgrades Economic Growth Forecast . Tatevik Lazarian Armenia - A worker at a cannery in Ararat province, 19Apr2014. Armenia's economy is on course to grow by 4.3 percent this year after stagnating in 2016, Finance Minister Vartan Aramian said on Monday. The Armenian government had forecast an economic growth rate of 3.2 percent for 2017 in its budget proposal approved by parliament just over a year ago. According to official statistics, the country's Gross Domestic Product beat that expectation in the first half of 2017, increasing by roughly 5 percent in real terms. "Expert analysis shows that by the end of the year we will have faster growth than the 3.2 percent [rate] projected by the state budget," Aramian told a news conference. "We expect a real growth rate of 4.3 percent this year." Data from the National Statistical Service (NSS) shows that first-half growth was driven in large measure by a nearly 13 percent rise industrial output. The NSS also reported a more than 5 percent increase in retail trade. The Armenian economy expanded by only 0.2 percent in 2016 not least because of a downturn in agriculture which the government blamed on bad weather. The agricultural sector continued to contract in the first half of 2017 due to an unusually harsh winter and a summer drought. In its five-year policy program approved by the National Assembly in June, Prime Minister Karen Karapetian's cabinet pledged to ensure that economic growth in Armenia averages 5 percent annually. The government is supposed to meet this ambitious target by promoting exports and improving the domestic business environment. Aramian also said on Monday that despite faster growth Armenia's total public debt will reach 58.8 percent of GDP at the end of this year.The proportion stood at 56.6 percent in December 2016. The minister defended continued government borrowing from mainly external sources. "We have borrowed from abroad to make investments," he said. Armenian Highway Project Faces Uncertain Future . Harry Tamrazian Armenia - The Yerevan-Ararat highway is upgraded as part of the North-South transport project, 2Feb2014. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Sunday that the Armenian government has not yet asked it for additional multimillion-dollar funding needed for completing an ambitious project to upgrade Armenia's main highways stretching over 550 kilometers to Georgia and Iran. The North-South transport project worth an estimated $1.5 billion is aimed at facilitating the landlocked country's access to the Georgian and Iranian ports. It was also meant to enable Iran to use Armenian and Georgian territory for large-scale freight shipments to and from Europe. In 2009, the (ADB) agreed to lend Yerevan up to $500 million for the first phase of the road upgrades. Only two highways connecting Yerevan to the towns of Ararat and Ashtarak have been expanded and repaved to date, costing $60 million. Their total length of is just over 30 kilometers. Work on about 120 kilometers of other roads running further southeast and northwest of the Armenian capital is due to be finished in 2019. It is financed not only by the ADB but also the European Investment Bank, the European Union's lending arm. In 2015, the government also borrowed $150 million from the Kazakhstan-based Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) to rebuild a 20-kilometer road running through Armenia's highest mountain pass close to the Iranian border. Armenia - A highway west of Yerevan is expanded and upgraded by a Spanish firm, 15May2015. According to Shane Rosenthal, the head of the ADB office in Yerevan, the Manila-based multilateral lending institution has so far disbursed $330 million in loans for the ongoing roadworks. In an interview with RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am), Rosenthal said the government has not yet made plans for reconstructing the national highways that mainly pass through the mountainous Vayots Dzor and Syunik provinces in southeastern Armenia. It is therefore not known when the project could be fully implemented, he said. "The government has a lot of priorities and it's going to have to decide which is a higher priority: completing this road corridor or investing in education or public services provided in other areas," argued Rosenthal. Speaking in March, Transport and Communications Minister Vahan Martirosian also could not say when the expensive project will be completed. Martirosian, who joined the government in October 2016, admitted that some of the planned roadworks have fallen behind schedule due to poor management. He insisted, though, that the project as a whole has not been a failure. Some Armenian media and civil society groups have alleged corrupt practices during its slow implementation. Rosenthal insisted that the ADB has seen no evidence of corruption among relevant government officials or contractors. Press Review (Saturday, September 23) "Haykakan Zhamanak" says that of all leaders of major world powers Russia's President Vladimir Putin sent the "weakest" congratulatory message to Serzh Sarkisian in connection with the 26th anniversary of Armenia's independence marked on September 21. "Unlike the Russian president's message, U.S. President Donald Trump's message not only did not repeat last year's congratulation but also had an unprecedentedly detailed content," comments the paper. It speculates that by praising Armenia's cooperation with NATO Trump urged Armenia to "come out of Russia's zone of influence." "Zhoghovurd" comments on controversy caused by Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian's statement that Armenian territorial concessions to Azerbaijan are a key issue on the agenda of ongoing peace talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "The outcry caused by Nalbandian's statement is not surprising for a number of reasons," writes the paper. "First of all, within the county and in the Armenian Diaspora there is a lack of trust in Serzh Sarkisian's administration. People are rightly convinced that he is unable to defend Armenia's interests, including on the Karabakh issue, in the international arena. Besides, in the last 20 years the authorities have never tried to engage in a dialogue with the public and to honestly and openly talk about the essence of the Karabakh conflict and variants of its resolution. They have not presented the real picture." "Zhamanak" says that the main result of the latest Armenia-Diaspora conference in Yerevan is the official start of preparations for the establishment of a "pan-Armenian council." "This is Serzh Sarkisian's idea which has several political subtexts connected with Sarkisian's political plans or scenarios," the paper says. "One of those apparent subtexts is that with the creation of the pan-Armenian council Serzh Sarkisian will essentially dissolve his coalition with Dashnaktsutyun ... The pan-Armenian council will most probably be a supranational body that will at least morally dictate actions to both national and state organizations." That, the paper claims, will make his power-sharing agreement with Dashnaktsutyun meaningless. (Sargis Harutyunyan) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org