Washington supports S. Caucasus development – U.S. ambassador

Washington supports S. Caucasus development – U.S. ambassador

Interfax
Sept 15 2004

YEREVAN. Sept 15 (Interfax) – Washington supports further democratic
development of the South Caucasus republics, newly-appointed U.S.
Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, said at a press conference in
Yerevan on Wednesday.

The ambassador said stability and security, economic growth,
and development of democratic institutions are the main areas of
Washington’s activity in South Caucasus, and Armenia has made certain
success in all of them.

The ambassador admitted that some difficulties remain in the
stability and security sphere, which results from the fact that the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has still not been resolved.

Evans maintained that the final resolution of the problem is for the
conflicting parties to achieve, while the U.S., Russia, and France,
as the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group, are continuing their
mediating efforts to help settle the conflict.

Evans said the U.S. is also continuing to work on opening the
Armenian-Turkish border, which is in the focus of the U.S. attention
and which is in the interests of both Yerevan and Ankara.

The ambassador also welcomed an initiative by the Armenian government
to send a team of military doctors, drivers, and sappers to Iraq.