Yuri Kim about Washington`s policy towards Baku, Yerevan and Georgia

ArmInfo. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Yuri Kim,  speaking at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, told about the Biden administration's policy towards the South Caucasus countries, stating that all three countries have to make a very important choice. "We want a full relationship with Azerbaijan. What that means is, along with Azerbaijan's energy cooperation with Europe, such as the Southern Gas Corridor, which the United States  supports and points in the right direction,-the U.S.  also  supports Azerbaijan in other areas to improve the situation. In particular, this concerns human rights," Kim said. In her opinion, President Aliyev has a great opportunity with the world coming to Baku in November, for COP 29. "He has got to decide what is Azerbaijan-the modern Azerbaijan-under his tenure and what does he want to present to the world," Kim added, Turan reports.

Kim also spoke about the threats that "Russia poses in its neighborhood," adding that every neighbor of Russia "should be sleeping with their eyes open."

Armenia, according to her, is looking for alternatives: "This does not mean that their relations with Russia are deteriorating. We are very eager to provide as much support as possible to Armenia's efforts to diversify its relations, strengthen its security and economic prosperity, and sign a peace treaty with its adversary," she explained.

"While Washington is trying to establish ties between Baku and Yerevan to bring them to a peace agreement, it is also considering "other elements," Kim said, referring to assistance from USAID. "In the current financial year, it is about 77 million. These funds will go towards Armenia's resilience in issues such as climate and food security and bringing Armenia out of isolation," the diplomat noted.

 As for Georgia, she recalled the law on foreign agents, which forces Georgian NGOs to register as foreign agents if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. According to her, recent events in Georgia have been a disappointment, because Georgia was previously a leading country in the region.