President Robert Kocharian sent congratulations on 12 August to his successor as president of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Arkadii Ghukasian, who won re-election for a second term the previous day, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. Also on 12 August, retired U.S. officials who monitored the Karabakh ballot lauded the enclave's "demonstrable progress in building democracy." Ghukasian reaffirmed his readiness for talks with Baku on "all problems of mutual interest." At the same time, he stressed that "no serious Azerbaijani politician seriously thinks that Nagorno-Karabakh can again be made subordinate to Azerbaijan." (RFE/RL)