Yesterday RA Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan’s visit to the US was completed. After the US visit Sargsyan will leave for France. When speaking of this visit the inter-political circles of Armenia are saying that this was perhaps the first official visit of the Armenian delegation to the US after 1999 and which deserved a high-level reception.
On October 23 Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan had a meeting with the US Under-Secretary of State Ruben Jeffrey, the last day of his visit to the United States. There was a discussion on issues concerning the current stage and the future of the Armenian-American economic relations; the parties thoroughly touched upon the activity of the Armenian-American working group and issues concerning the further improvement of the investment atmosphere in Armenia. The Under-Secretary of State mentioned with satisfaction that the US authorities were happy to see the serious results attained in Armenia due to the American assistance. PM Serzh Sargsyan mentioned that during the recent years Armenia has done considerable work towards creating strong grounds, and the task of the Government is to speed up the development paces still further. The parties shared the opinion that Armenia has to be competitive on the world scale, in order to be a winner on the investment market. Later in the day during his interview to Reuters News Agency Sargsyan mentioned, “The issue of genocide is a crucial issue for every Armenian and prior to my departure to the US I have promised to personally congratulate all the people, who have had their investment in the recognition of Resolution 106 by the US House on Foreign Affairs. And I do that during my meetings.” Within the frameworks of his visit the Prime Minister had a meeting with the US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice. A wide scope of issues was discussed during the meeting. Touching upon Armenia’s current democratic and economic reforms, Serzh Sargsyan introduced the RA authorities’ continuous efforts in that direction. In particular, he mentioned that after the last parliamentary elections Armenia established serious grounds for pursuing the initiatives aimed at the improvement of the electoral processes. Condoleezza Rice expressed willingness on behalf of the US Government to assist Armenia in solving the technical problems that may emerge while organizing the 2008 presidential elections. Let’s remember that prior to this meeting during Sargsyan-Chaney meeting the parties have discussed issues to be resolved after the presidential elections. Chaney said that they find Sargsyan a trustworthy politician, who is inclined to strengthening democracy in the country. The parties also discussed the current stage of the Karabakh peace settlement process, stated the importance of speeding it up to the greatest possible extent. Serzh Sargsyan particularly mentioned that Azerbaijan’s bellicose statements (recently growing in number) do not absolutely contribute to the peaceful settlement of the process. The relations of Armenia with the other neighbors, security and energy issues, Armenia’s participation in international peacekeeping missions and other issues of mutual interest were discussed during the meeting. The US visit of the Armenian Prime Minister was concluded in the evening in the RA Embassy in the US. During the reception held for Sargsyan the embassy hosted officials of the US State Department, Defense Department and other departments, the high-rank management of the WB and IMF. During the reception representatives of famous Armenian-American political organizations were also present. During his speech to the Armenian-American session on US economic issues RA Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan has spoken about the upcoming presidential elections of Armenia. He said, “The RA government is interested in conduct free and fair elections. The evidence of that is the conduct of 2007 May 12 Parliamentary elections. The elections were highly estimated by the international monitors. The RA government is determined in conducting the presidential elections, which will conform to international standards.” When speaking of the Millennium Challenges Compact Sargsyan mentioned that the RA government pays a great attention to the rural communities, to reduction of poverty and unemployment. Armenia doesn’t only rely on the support of foreign countries and undertake certain steps in that direction. The government constantly follows the implementation of programs in Armenia’s villages. “The political and economic future of Armenia and our vision is development of a democratic and a liberal state and in this context the Untied States is considered as Armenia’s ally. Only during the past two years Armenia has amended its Constitution, the judicial system has been drastically improved, the electoral code was reformed and the new law on local governments was adopted. One of the main priorities of the current government is fight against corruption and the government has undertaken certain steps in that direction in such structures as customs and tax sectors. We have the preliminary results and are going to follow in the same line,” he said. Let’s remember that a few days ago the chairman of the National Unity party, Artashes Geghamyan when speaking of the upcoming presidential elections of Armenia, has mentioned a lot of things will be simplified after Serzh Sargsyan’s visit to the US. Perhaps he meant whether the US would approve Sargsyan’s candidature during the presidential elections 2008. Based on the discussions of Sargsyan with Condoleeza Rice and Dick Chaney we may assume that the US will support Sargsyan.