InternationalWashington briefing: Armenian Caucus co-chairs make aid, policy proposals
Published: Friday March 27, 2009
Rep. Nita Lowey. . AP
Washington - The United States should increase engagement with Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh and tighten existing restrictions on ties with Azerbaijan, Reps. Frank Pallone (D.-N.J.) and Mark Kirk (R.-Ill.), co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues recommended in a March 24 letter to colleagues.
The letter, currently open for additional co-signers, is addressed to Reps. Nita Lowey (D.-N.Y.) and Kay Granger (R.-Tex.), respectively chair and ranking member of the House Foreign Appropriations Subcommittee which sets foreign-aid levels at the early stages of the annual budget process.
Specifically, the Pallone-Kirk letter argued for an increase in U.S. economic aid to Armenia from Fiscal Year 2009 level of $48mln to $70mln; military aid, from $3.5mln to $5mln; and aid to Nagorno-Karabakh from $8mln to $10mln.
The letter also recommends report language that would lift any "official or unofficial restrictions" on formal U.S. engagement with Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as support for confidence-building measures to help resolve the Karabakh conflict.
Additionally, citing Azerbaijan's continued war threats, the letter recommends an additional condition on presidential authority to waive existing restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan.
The new language would require the executive branch to certify that "in the last fiscal year, Azerbaijan has not taken hostile action, either through military force or incitement, including but not limited to threatening pronouncements by government officials, toward Armenia or Nagorno-Karabakh."
Should that condition be met, the co-chairs suggest equal levels of military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan, or the so-called "parity" approach to continue.
Last summer, the effort by Mr. Kirk's predecessor as co-chair, former Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R.-Mich.) to zero out U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan outright failed narrowly in the subcommittee vote.
