Friday, September 1 2017 14:17

ArmInfo. The USA is proud of standing next to Armenia as a reliable partner and expects to deepen cooperation in the future. On September 1, in Yerevan, during  discussions with alumni of the George Marshall Center about the challenges Armenia faces in the sphere of security, US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills stated.

According to him, the Armenia-US partnership was laid 25 years ago  and the parties work together to strengthen Armenia's capabilities in  all directions. At the same time, the diplomat expressed his  conviction that a large number of graduates of the Marshall Center  from Armenia testify to the strength of the Armenian-American defense  cooperation. "During these years, participating in the projects of  the Marshall Center, Armenia not only influenced the approaches that  Armenian leaders and those who make security decisions, but also the  wider involvement of the RA in security issues in the Euro-Atlantic  area. Graduates of the Marshall Center during these years contributed  to the partnership and permanent strengthening of friendship, and,  having returned home, brought with them new ideas that were  applicable in Armenia. They also helped ensure that the processes in  Armenia and the South Caucasus become more receptive to Washington  and other European capitals," the US ambassador said.

In his turn, German Ambassador to Armenia Matthias Kiesler noted that  the participation of the Armenian side in various projects of the  Marshall Center plays an important role. He noted that last year the  German Defense Ministry decided to increase funding to the Marshall  Center in Yerevan, which shows how important the FRG attaches to  relations with Armenia. "This also opens up a new opportunity for  Armenian graduates of the center who can join the internal network of  graduates of the Marshall Center, more than 12,000 of them  worldwide," the ambassador concluded.

During the meeting, two panels of discussions were held: the first  was devoted to Armenia's foreign policy and defense approaches, where  the RA's relations with NATO and the CSTO were discussed, as well as  with its neighbors; The second is the challenges facing the South  Caucasus in the security field, where corruption issues were raised,  as a challenge to national security, as well as terrorism as a global  threat.

To note, Armenia participates in the projects of D. Marshall Center  since 1995, over these years more than 240 Armenian participants have  graduated from this center.

The Marshall Center is a joint American-German educational  institution, something like a military-political academy. Since the  day of education (1993), over 12,000 high-ranking officers, senior  government officials, scientists and parliamentarians from  forty-eight countries, including from Armenia, Russia and other  post-Soviet republics, have been trained here. Training in the  Marshall Center is conducted in three languages - English, German and  Russian. Teaching staff - mixed, Germans, French, Romanians, Finns,  as well as from Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The  lion's share of the annual spending was assumed by the United States  - twenty-five out of twenty-seven million dollars. The rest is paid  by Germany.