YEREVAN, JULY 24, ARMENPRESS. First deputy prime minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan commented on the possible meeting of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and US President Donald Trump via a video on Facebook, reports Armenpress.

“Within the frameworks of the upcoming visit PM Pashinyan will depart for the US in September to participate in the UN General Assembly, and therefore on the sidelines of the visit the Congressmen find it appropriate to organize Pashinyan-Trump meeting: they launched a petition in the Congress for this purpose and address letter to President Trump. The issue has been raised by the Congressmen, and we assured that it is being discussed, the meeting is possible”, the first deputy PM said.

Mirzoyan also commented on the details of Armenia’s withdrawal from the Millennium Challenge program. “Quite long time before our visit the World Bank changed Armenia’s rating from a country with low average income to high average income, but according to the criteria of the Millennium Challenge program, those states which meet several criteria, as well as didn’t reach high average, can be considered as possible partners. As a result of the rating change, Armenia thus became a country not being in accordance with this program. And now some US officials also don’t know how to deal with the current situation”, he said, adding that it’s necessary to think about a new mechanism through which the US will be able to provide its support to Armenia’s democracy.

In the video the first deputy PM also talked about the goals of his recent visit to the US. “The primary goal was to participate in the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and introduce Armenia’s national voluntary report. Within the frames of this event two adjacent events were also scheduled which Armenia had undertaken to implement”, he said.

The Armenian delegation met with the top US officials during which the relations of the two countries were discussed. “We had meetings with the UNDP head, COAF founder and director Garo Armen, attended the event organized by the AGBU and also met with the AGBU representatives. Thereafter, several bilateral meetings with quite influential Congressmen and Senators were held in Washington D.C., meeting took place with the US Assistant Secretary of State Wess Mitchell, as well as other officials. During these meetings we have introduced Armenia’s new political priority, the recent developments, the revolution, its values, in other words, we have presented the new situation in Armenia to the American administration. We also had very serious discussions on deepening the ties between Armenia and the US, in particular, we discussed the US assistance provided to Armenia, the deepening of commercial ties, the possibility to increase direct investments and other issues beneficial for Armenia”, Ararat Mirzoyan said.

He said the US trip for the PM’s staff comprised 4.5 million drams, but the delegation also included representatives of various ministries whose expenditures have been carried out from the budgets of their ministries. The delegation also included the representative of the Public TV of Armenia, whose travel costs have been covered by the TV.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan