YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — President Serge Sargisian praised US involvement in the South Caucasus and assistance to Armenia on Thursday, January 14, when he met with a visiting senior official in the administration of President Barack Obama.
Charles Kupchan, senior director for European affairs at the US National Security Council, arrived in Yerevan the day after visiting Baku and holding talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
The Armenian presidential press office said Sargisian discussed with Kupchan a range of issues, including the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict, broader regional security and Armenia’s relations with NATO and the European Union. It quoted Sargisian as saying that US-Armenian relations have “constantly developed” since the early 1990s.
“The President underscored the importance of the US assistance to Armenia’s economic development, reforms, democratization and civil society, as well as the US government’s continuous efforts to maintain stability in the region,” the office added in a statement.
According to the statement, Kupchan, for his part, praised Armenia’s participation in the NATO-led missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo.
Sargisian was among some 50 heads of state and government who were invited by Obama to a UN peacekeeping summit held in New York in September. Addressing the summit, the Armenian leader affirmed Yerevan’s readiness to join more peacekeeping missions abroad in the near future.
