President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2011 (FY11) budget, released earlier today, calls for $40 million in assistance to Armenia — $10 million more than his FY10 request, but still $1 million less than the total appropriated by Congress last year, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) reports.

“We welcome the decision by the Obama Administration to ask for $10 million more in economic aid to Armenia this year than he did last year, and also his proposal to maintain parity in a key area of military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

The budget proposes maintaining Foreign Military Financing (FMF) assistance parity between Armenia and Azerbaijan, requesting $3.5 million for each country. Earlier, the White House tried to tilt the military aid balance in support of Azerbaijan, ANCA press release reads.

On the whole U.S. intends to allocate $599.164.000 to Europe and Eurasia, that is $11.818.000 less than last year.