The American administration, led by President Joe Biden, presented budget proposals for 2022, according to which financial assistance to Armenia remained unchanged.
The document notes that the funds allocated to the countries of Europe and Eurasia in the framework of financial assistance are aimed at ensuring the resilience of these countries to foreign harmful influence, their progress along the path of Euro-Atlantic integration, as well as solving the growing challenges and encroachments from Russia and China.
Funding will support programs aimed at protecting democracy, the rule of law, promoting human rights and gender equality, fighting corruption, and countering authoritarianism.
The programs will work to support allies and partners as they develop responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and take action to address the impact of the pandemic across all sectors of the economy and public affairs, the document says.
According to the document, the United States intends to allocate more than $ 88 million in financial assistance to Georgia in 2022. Thus, Georgia will receive the largest amount of aid from all countries in the region. For comparison, the assistance provided to Armenia and Azerbaijan remained unchanged - 23.40 million and 9.14 million US dollars, respectively.
Through military education and training, the countries of Europe and Eurasia will receive $ 26.9 million. These funds should go to strengthening regional security, interoperability with the US, NATO, and European forces, as well as helping to counter Russian aggression.
The request for 2022 for Armenia and Azerbaijan under the IMET program is $ 600,000 each. In 2020, $ 192,000 was allocated to Armenia, and $ 211,000 to Azerbaijan. In 2022, $ 1,940,000 will be allocated to Turkey under the program, and $ 651,000 was provided in 2020.
Within the framework of the financial assistance program, the countries of Europe and Eurasia can receive 299 million from the United States to counter Russian influence and aggression by strengthening the ability of allies and partners to exercise sovereignty and provide their own defenses by improving interoperability with NATO. Within the program, Georgia was offered to provide $ 25 million, the rest of the region's countries were not included in this program.