Whereas the United States formally recognized the independence of the Republic of Armenia almost a century ago on April 23, 1920, through a letter from Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby to the Representative of the Armenian Republic, Garegin Pasdermadjian, informing him of President Woodrow Wilson’s decision; Whereas the United States recognized the reestablishment of Armenia’s independence following seven decades of Soviet rule on December 25, 1991, when President George H.W. Bush announced this decision in an address regarding the dissolution of the Soviet Union; Whereas the people of the Republic of Armenia showed their commitment to democracy, anticorruption measures, and rule of law during their nonviolent Velvet Revolution between April and May of 2018, leading to the peaceful transfer of executive leadership; Whereas the Velvet Revolution culminated in the December 9, 2018, national parliamentary elections that were held with respect for fundamental freedoms and enjoyed broad public trust that needs to be preserved through further electoral reforms , according to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) election observation mission; Whereas the longstanding friendship of the American and Armenian peoples reinforced during decades of principled United States leadership for Armenian independence from Soviet tyranny, and expanded, in the years since Armenia’s reborn independence, through regional and international security cooperation, and mutually beneficial bilateral political, economic, military, democracy, and development partnerships; Whereas almost a century after the United States first formally recognized the independence of the Republic of Armenia the bilateral political, economic, and strategic partnership between the two countries continues to flourish