Esteemed representatives
Ladies and Gentlemen

I have the great pleasure to participate with you today in signing these grant agreements by which our Embassy will finance, in the amount of $75,000, some of your organizations’ activities. These activities are aimed at educating citizens and reinforcing the democratic process in Mauritania, and will be conducted throughout different regions of the country.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The assistance that my country gives today is made within the framework of our continuing and diverse support to Mauritania in its quest for democracy and development. It comes as well within the framework of my country’s efforts for the opening and reinforcement of the values and practices of democracy in the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The selection of these three NGOs was made in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program, one of our partners in the transition process now underway in Mauritania, our other partners being the Mauritanian government and other embassies.  The efforts made by these three NGOs proves the effectiveness of this partnership.  Our wish is to be able to reinforce what an important role civil society plays in democratic education and how it contributes, as well, to the success of the democratic process in your country. We consider that help in these areas is an obligation dictated by our values.  It comes as well from the desire to reinforce the rule of law.

Ladies and Gentlemen

These grant agreements constitute one more important link in the positive development of cooperative relations, friendship, and assistance uniting the government of the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

Thank you.

Steven Koutsis,
Chargé d’Affaires of the United States Embassy
in Mauritania

Nouakchott September 22, 2006.