Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian met last week with Kofi Annan–Secretary General of the United Nations (UN)–Jan Eliasson–President of the General Assembly of the UN–and Kemal Dervis–Administrator of the UN Development Program.
During his meetings with Secretary General Annan and Eliasson–Oskanian discussed the Karabagh resolution process as well as recent ceasefire violations. He expressed Armenia’s serious concern that the military rhetoric of Azerbaijan’s leaders is leading to increasingly more frequent ceasefire violations by the Azeri military along the line of contact.
Armenia’s Foreign Minister also discussed UN reforms–and welcomed the formation of the new Human Rights Council–reiterating Armenia’s desire to remain engaged in human rights issues.
In these meetings–and during his talks with Dervis–Oskanian also stressed Armenia’s commitment to rural development. He stressed that the Millennium Challenge Compact–recently signed with the US government–will create a necessary momentum to spur development and that the Armenian government is committed to building on this momentum with its comprehensive plan. He said the Armenian government’s plan for rural development is based on a public-private partnership–which includes Armenia’s diaspora–Armenia’s business community–the Armenian government–and international organizations.