LETTER FROM SECRETARY CLINTON TO PRESIDENT

UNCLAS STATE 039535 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPDC PREL AM SUBJECT: LETTER FROM SECRETARY CLINTON TO PRESIDENT SARGSIAN ¶1. Please deliver the following message from Secretary Clinton to Armenian President Serzh Sargsian. No signed original will follow. ¶2. Begin text: Dear Mr. President: I wish to express my satisfaction with the recent signing of the Joint Action Plan between the United States and Armenia on preventing transfers of concern of conventional arms and dual-use items. This is a positive first step, and we welcome it. The United States is committed to assisting the Government of Armenia in its efforts to strengthen its export control laws and their implementation, to ensure that there will never be another serious export control-related issue. The United States appreciates your government's commitment to ensuring that such transfers do not recur. It is my hope that we will make meaningful progress on implementing our Joint Action Plan over the next six months. The historic and courageous steps you have taken to normalize relations with Turkey are truly commendable. As President Obama stated in his recent speech before the Turkish Parliament, "The United States strongly supports the full normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia." I appreciate Armenia's willingness to make tangible progress toward a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement in the short term and fully support our efforts in the OSCE Minsk Group to achieve a breakthrough in the coming months on the four main unresolved points within the Basic Principles. I am watching this issue closely and intend to be personally engaged in supporting the process, as we seek a just and lasting settlement that incorporates the Helsinki Final Act's principles of self-determination, territorial integrity, and non-use of force. Sincerely yours, Hillary Rodham Clinton END TEXT. CLINTON