Tax Payer Dollars Won’t Be Spent on Kars-Akhalkalaki Railway Construction

15.06.2006 15:26 GMT+04:00
PanARMENIAN.Net

Members of the House Financial Services Committee adhere to U.S. policy goals of regional cooperation and economic integration by ensuring that no Export-Import funding would be used for a proposed rail link project that would connect Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan, while bypassing Armenia, the Armenian Assembly of America reported. Lawmakers approved H.R. 5068, the Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2006, which included an amendment introduced by Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-NY), along with Congressmen Edward Royce (R-CA) and Brad Sherman (D-CA), ensuring that taxpayer dollars will not be spent on efforts that would exclude Armenia from regional projects and commercial opportunities.

Unanimous approval of this amendment by the House Financial Services Committee sends a strong message that it does not endorse attempts to undermine U.S. policy goals, which seeks to normalize Armenian-Turkish relations and to reach a peaceful settlement in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Moreover, the Committee's action echoes recent statements made by Ambassador-Designate to Azerbaijan, Anne Derse, who indicated that the proposed railroad would "not be beneficial to regional integration..."

"With this amendment, we are sending a message to the governments of Turkey and Azerbaijan that continually excluding Armenia in regional projects fosters instability," Crowley told Members of the Committee. " If the Caucasus region is to move forward, we must ensure that all countries move forward together at the same time."

The legislation, which also has a Senate counterpart, would prohibit U.S. assistance for the promotion or development of a railroad that would connect the three countries and exclude Armenia. The House bill currently has 85 cosponsors.

Sherman, who also addressed the Committee, said that the European Union has already publicly indicated that it will not finance a rail project in which Armenia is not involved. "Export-Import made a huge mistake when it approved finance guarantees for the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline in 2003," Sherman told the Assembly. "This amendment puts Congress on record opposing a repeat of that fiasco embodied by this ill-conceived and wasteful rail project." "Our foreign assistance should help end conflict by fostering cooperation," Sherman continued. "We should not entrench divisions by financing projects which exclude countries friendly to the United States."

The next step in the legislative process is a vote in the full House on H.R. 5068.

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