Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan and National Endowment for Democracy President Damon Wilson met today in Yerevan and discussed potential cooperation between the U.S. Congress funded organization and the Armenian government.

Pashinyan, according to a statement released by his office, said strengthening democracy in Armenia is one of the priorities of his administration and thanked the United States for its support in the field.

Wilson said the NED is committed to cooperating with various institutions in Armenia to foster democracy.

The NED, founded in 1983, has been criticized by some on the left and various foreign governments for pursuing U.S. strategic interests. NED officials have denied the charge.

During a 2010 investigation by  ProPublica, Paul Steiger, the then editor in chief of the publication said that "those who spearheaded creation of NED have long acknowledged it was part of an effort to move from covert to overt efforts to foster democracy" and cited as evidence a 1991 interview in which then-NED president Allen Weinstein said, "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."  

Critics have compared the NED's funding of Nicaraguan groups (pro-U.S. and conservative unions, political parties, student groups, business groups, and women's associations) in the 1980s and 1990s in Nicaragua to the previous CIA effort "to challenge and undermine" a left-wing government in Chile.