The White House’s nominee for the position of the U.S. Agency for International Development assistant administrator for Europe and Eurasia has failed to explain the gap between the amount of aid allocated by the U.S. Congress for Nagorno-Karabakh in the Caucasus region and the actual money spent since the U.S. announced such support 12 years ago, an Armenian-American grass-roots political organization observes.
The Armenian National Committee of America explains that during her Nov. 17 hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Paige Eve Alexander avoided directly responding to inquiries on why only USD35 million out of the USD65 million allocated by Congress for Nagorno Karabakh has been spent so far. Alexander’s written responses to questions from Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) did not also address the issue, ANCA says in a news release.
Alexander’s nomination to the senior USAID post was announced in September.
>> Obama Fields Nominee for Senior USAID Post
“If confirmed, I look forward to working closely with you on this important issue. I understand from briefings that USAID assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh has remained constant since 2001 despite a sharp decline in the regional budget and a number of competing priorities. USAID is the only U.S. Government agency carrying out development projects in Nagorno-Karabakh. Funding provided by the American people has improved shelters, health facilities, schools, community centers, water systems, and loan access for microenterprises,” the committee quoted Alenxander’s reply to the senator’s written inquiry on why USAID “has not allocated the full amounts appropriated for assistance projects for Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Nagorno-Karabakh is located in the South Caucasus region. It is internationally recognized as a region of Azerbaijan, but the country has not exercised power over most of it since 1991.
