Antony J. Blinken 71st U.S. Secretary of State | Official Website
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard R. Verma and President of the Republic of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan inaugurated the U.S.-Armenia Local Democracy Forum on June 17 in Yerevan, Armenia. This inaugural event brought together U.S. and Armenian mayors along with regional, state, and provincial leaders for a two-day discussion on local leadership in a democratic context.
Ambassador (ret.) Nina Hachigian, the U.S. Department of State Special Representative for City and State Diplomacy, led the U.S. delegation, accompanied by Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs Sarah Morgenthau. The delegation included Mayor Elen Asatryan of Glendale, California; Director Samuel Assefa for the Office of Planning and Research of the State of California; Mayor Paige Cognetti of Scranton, Pennsylvania; Mayor Wilmot Collins of Helena, Montana; Mayor Victor Gordo of Pasadena, California; Deputy Secretary Kelsey Olson at the Department of Agriculture of the State of Kansas; and Chief Information Officer Ted Ross of Los Angeles, California.
Armenian participants included Lilya Davtyan, Vanadzor Head of Development Programmes, Foreign Relations, and IT; Davit Gevorgyan, Head of Foreign Affairs Department in Yerevan; Governor Hayk Ghalumyan from Tavush Province; Mayor Armen Grigoryan from Stepanavan; Arman Khojoyan, Deputy Minister of Economy; Edgar Martirosyan, General Secretary and Chief of Staff from Syunik Province; and Mayor Vardges Samsonyan from Gyumri among other local and national officials.
During the opening session, local leaders announced their intention to form new city and regional partnerships between Helena (Montana) and Stepanavan community; Scranton (Pennsylvania) and Armavir community; as well as Michigan state with Tavush province.
The forum will include discussions on democracy building at the local level through cooperation with civil society and free media, transparency and accountability measures, election integrity practices, constituent engagement strategies among other topics. On June 18th delegates will travel to Gyumri to meet municipal officials at Gyumri Technology Center to discuss IT development initiatives along with fostering public-private partnerships responding to climate change challenges promoting tourism efforts.
Participants will also engage in meetings within their sister city-state pairs aiming to deepen dialogue cooperation over coming months focusing on building robust partnerships enhancing mutual understanding good governance economic development peace prosperity for people both Armenia United States.
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