KOCHARIAN AND MINISTERS PLAN FIRST STATE VISIT TO

UNCLAS YEREVAN 001624

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN, EUR/ACE, EUR/PGI, EAP/CM, DRL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV CH AM
SUBJECT: KOCHARIAN AND MINISTERS PLAN FIRST STATE VISIT TO
CHINA SEPTEMBER 26-30


Sensitive But Unclassified. Please protect accordingly.

-------------- --
MAJOR DELEGATION EXPECTED FOR FIRST STATE VISIT
-------------- --


1. (SBU) MFA sources confirmed July 20 that Armenian
President Robert Kocharian would travel to China September
26-30. The GOAM had not yet made this information public
but will likely announce it to the press July 21 or 22.
Several GOAM Foreign Ministers have traveled to China in the
past as part of international conferences, but this trip
will be the GOAM's first state visit to China. Sources
close to the President's office said Kocharian was planning
to invite up to seven cabinet-level ministers on the trip,
which would make it the largest GOAM delegation of its kind
to date.

--------------
COMMENT
--------------


2. (SBU) If these meetings indeed come together, substantive
discussion will not likely go beyond the prospects for
further economic cooperation and policy collaboration in
international fora. Kocharian will no doubt attempt to
portray the trip as evidence of an increased political
profile vis-a-vis Turkey and Azerbaijan. Pundits will
attempt to link the visit with a perceived change in
Armenia's longtime policy of "complementarity" between the
U.S. and Russia. If nothing else, the trip will add an
unexpected factor into local political discussion this fall
which was otherwise poised to center around the opposition's
expected return to parliament and familiar foreign policy
issues surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh and relations with
Turkey.
ORDWAY