NEW YORK — U.S. President Barack Obama talked to his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian in New York late on Monday during a reception that was hosted by him for foreign leaders attending the ongoing session of the UN General Assembly.
“At the reception Presidents Barack Obama and Serzh Sarkisian had a brief conversation during which they discussed issues of pan-Armenian significance,” the Armenian presidential press service said on Wednesday. It gave no details.
Earlier on Monday Sarkisian addressed a UN peacekeeping summit initiated and chaired by Obama. The Armenian leader was among some 50 heads of state and government invited to the summit.
President Obama praised Armenia’s “strong and lasting” ties with the United States when he congratulated Sarkisian on the 24th anniversary of Armenia’s independence earlier this month. “Armenia is an important partner with which we share a dynamic and expanding agenda,” he wrote. “We are grateful for Armenia’s contributions to peacekeeping operations, including in Lebanon and Kosovo.”
In his speech at the New York summit, Sarkisian affirmed Yerevan’s readiness to join more multinational peacekeeping missions in the near future. He specifically offered to deploy Armenian medical and demining units.
Such deployments will require further U.S. technical and material assistance to a special peacekeeping brigade of the Armenian armed forces.
