US Donates 85 Million USD to South Caucasus

According to the US Foreign Aid project 2015-2016, approved by the Appropriations Committee of the US Senate, the US intends to allocate USD 85 million in total to three republics of the South Caucasus for various programs.

Azerbaijan will receive economic aid in the amount of 8,778,000 USD, Armenia – 20.06 million USD, and Georgia – 54 million USD, according to Radio Liberty. At the same time, Yerevan can count on 1.7 million USD for a foreign military financing program and 600 thousand USD for an international military education and training program.

According to the Armenia News Agency, the committee also expressed solidarity with Senator Mark Kirk for Humanitarian Assistance of the occupation regime of separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR).

“This program aims toward humanitarian needs and symbolizes the United States’ solidarity with the democratic aspirations of the NKR people,” said Ken Hachikian, Chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

US Foreign Aid is given to a variety of recipients, including developing countries, countries of strategic importance to the US, and countries recovering from war. The government channels about half of its economic assistance through a specialized agency, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Government-sponsored foreign aid began a systematic fashion after World War II. Today, the US government operates five major categories of foreign assistance: bilateral development aid (the largest amount), economic assistance supporting US political and security goals, humanitarian aid, multilateral economic contributions, and military aid.

Eka Karsaulidze