Armenian National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan, now on a working visit to the U.S., yesterday met with International Republican Institute (IRI) President Daniel Twining and Stephen Nix, who head’s the organization’s Eurasia section.

Simonyan and the IRI officials discussed human rights and democracy issues according to a statement released by Simonyan’s office. They also discussed legislative reforms in Armenia.

The IRI, founded in 1983 by the Ronald Reagan administration, is an American non-profit organization that proclaims it is “committed to advancing democracy and freedom where it is absent.”

While the IRI says it is non-partisan, the majority of its board, staff and consultants are drawn from the Republican Party according to a Militarist Monitor article. 

The organization has also been criticized for working to overthrow elected leaders critical of the U.S.

Joshua Kurlantzick, in a Mother Jones article, writes that the IRI, financed by the U.S., has “increasingly focused on training opposition parties intent on toppling elected governments”, and gives the examples of Haiti, Venezuela and Cambodia.