Bush administration proposed $55m aid to Armenia in FY 2006

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Assembly of America has welcomed the
positive components of the Bush Administration’s Armenia-related
foreign aid allocations of the just-released FY 2006 budget, and
especially the parity it established in security aid to Armenia and
Azerbaijan and the reference to humanitarian assistance to Nagorno
Karabakh. The draft bill provides for $5 million each to Armenia and
Azerbaijan in Foreign Military Financing and $750,000 each for
International Military Education and Training. At the same time the
Bush Administration asked for $55 million in economic assistance to
Armenia in FY 2006 – down from last fiscal year’s request of $62
million. Later the US Senate had approved “not less than” $75 million
in economic aid to Armenia. In the words of Assembly Board of
Directors Chairman Anthony Barsamian, the organization is determined
to advocate to Congress for increased funding. Details of the Bush
Administration’s FY 2006 Budget described Armenia as “one of the
leading performers in Eurasia in economic and political reform,” and
said it was for this reason that “Armenia was one of the two
countries in the region deemed eligible to receive grants from the
Millennium Challenge Account.”