Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USA to the Republican Armenia John Heffern has voiced regret over Armenia's statement on the referendum in Crimea.
Speaking at the Conference "NATO Partnership in the South Caucasus" in Yerevan on 20 March, Ambassador Heffern said that the U.S. and its NATO partners have tried hard to achieve a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Ukraine. Many options to manage the crisis were offered in the phone talks between Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin, Secretary John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the EU partners. Nevertheless, Moscow did not listen to those suggestions, the ambassador said.
To recall, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said in a phone talk with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin overnight that the Crimea referendum was another case of exercise of peoples' right to self- determination via free expression of will. To recall, 96% of the residents of Crimea voted for joining Russia.
The ongoing two-day International Conference "NATO Partnership in the South Caucasus: Strategic Approach to Regional Security" in Yerevan has brought together political analysts and experts from Azerbaijan, Georgia, USA, Russia, Turkey, Iran, UK, Spain and Belgium to discuss regional security issues, Euro-Atlantic prospects,
European and Eurasian partnership, cooperation and development trends in the countries in the South Caucasus.
The event is organized by the Center for Strategic Analysis Spectrum.