USAID Administrator Samatha Power has announced that the US will allocate $20 million for Armenia to bolster cyber, border, and energy security. The new allocation came just weeks after USAID more than doubled its five-year aid package to Armenia.
The announcement came on Wednesday, during a Democracy Delivers Initiative event organised by Power and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in partnership with the Ford Foundation.
‘Now I am pleased to take this moment to announce that working with Congress, USAID and the Department of State will provide $20 million for Armenia to bolster cyber, border, and energy security, and to further strengthen its resilience,’ Power said.
The event was held on the sidelines of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, and was attended by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Following the announcement, the US Embassy in Armenia stated that an additional $600,000 of USAID funding would be allocated as part of the Promoting Information Integrity and Resilience Initiative. This funding would be used ‘to enhance the technological capacities of independent media to produce impactful and public interest journalism, leverage innovation to promote media and information literacy, and to bolster the local advocacy for key media reforms in Armenia’.
Earlier in September, USAID more than doubled its five-year aid package to Armenia, from $120 million to $250 million.
According to the agreement, the additional money will go towards improving governance, civil participation in democracy, the sustainable management of natural resources, and increasing ‘the competitiveness of targeted sectors’ in Armenia.
Previously, in July, during a working visit to Armenia, Power announced nearly $12 million in new funding commitments for digital transformation, food security, communications, and risk mitigation in Armenia. This came on top of the over $65 million the US government announced in April, following a trilateral US–EU–Armenia meeting in Brussels.
The day before this latest funding announcement, Armenia’s Foreign Minister, Ararat Mirzoyan, met with the US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Bonnie Jenkins, in New York. They discussed the development of a strategic partnership between Armenia and the US.
Mirzoyan also emphasised that Armenia greatly values the support provided by the US in advancing democratic reforms and fostering the country’s sustainable development.
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