The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, the USAID Administrator, Samantha Power, and the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan met in Brussels on Friday 5 April to discuss the future of relations between the EU, the United States and Armenia, with a focus on Armenia’s economic diversification, political reforms and humanitarian aid.
Ahead of the meeting, Ms von der Leyen announced a new resilience and growth plan for Armenia, providing €270 million in subsidies over the next 4 years. “We will invest in making the Armenian economy and society more robust and resistant to shocks”, she explained. She added: “We will support your businesses, your talents, in particular your small and medium-sized enterprises, so that we can help them to grow, to innovate and to access new markets. And we will invest in key infrastructure projects”, particularly with regard to clean and renewable energy. Air and nuclear safety and commercial diversification were also highlighted.
This programme will be based on the European Union’s existing economic and investment plan for Armenia, which has already mobilised over €500 million in investments.
The US Secretary of State said that his country planned to provide Armenia with more than $65 million in development aid throughout the 2023 financial year.
In a joint declaration, the parties announced their intention to “expand cooperation to strengthen Armenia’s resilience, including in key sectors such as political reforms, economic development and humanitarian support”. “We will look to expand our partnerships, for example, in mobility, governance, law enforcement, trade, connectivity, agriculture, energy, and technology”, they added.
Highlighting the “substantial” progress made by Armenia since 2018, the American and European representatives also expressed their commitment to continue to work together and support the country “as it further strengthens its democracy and the Rule of law, in line with our shared values and principles”.
The EU and the United States also reaffirmed their commitment to support Armenia in its efforts to provide housing, training, employment opportunities and psychosocial support to the 100,000 displaced persons and refugees in Nagorno-Karabakh. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)