US is not providing equal amounts of military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan

The US is not providing equal amounts of military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan. According to Erkir newspaper, this was announced by Aram Gambarian, director of the Washington office of the Armenian National Committee of America.

'We are extremely concerned that the US administration has broken an agreement about providing equal amounts of military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan, which was reached two years ago between the White House and Congress,' Mr Gambarian said.

Yesterday US President George Bush presented the US budget for 2005, in which Armenia will be allocated USD 62 million overall, that is USD 13 million less than last year's sum. Azerbaijan will receive USD 38 million. The maximum amount of USD 90 million will be allocated to Georgia 'to help the new government carry out economic and political reform.' Also, Georgia will receive USD 8 million for military spending, Azerbaijan will receive USD 12 million and Armenia just USD 2 million.