The US on Tuesday signed an agreement to expand security cooperation with Armenia, which is seeking a greater distance from traditional ally Russia following a humiliating loss to Azerbaijan.
The US and Armenia formed a “strategic partnership commission” that will look for ways to build ties in areas from defense to the economy to democracy, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
The US is “working with Armenia in the realm of security and defense, and in particular, to support its efforts to assert its independence and sovereignty over its own territory,” Blinken said at a signing ceremony with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.
“We are increasingly strong partners, and I think that is for the good of both of our countries, as well as the good of the region and beyond,” Blinken said.
Among concrete measures, Blinken said the US would send a team to Armenia to provide expertise on strengthening border security.
The US will also start negotiations with Armenia on civilian nuclear cooperation, and Yerevan will formally join a longstanding US-led coalition on defeating the Islamic State extremist movement.
Armenia is formally an ally of Russia through the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization. But it suspended participation over what it called a failure by Russia, embroiled in its invasion of Ukraine, to provide sufficient assistance against Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan’s army seized the Karabakh region — controlled by Armenian separatists for three decades — in a lightning offensive in 2023, forcing the region’s more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee.
Blinken has previously tried, unsuccessfully, to broker a lasting peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Mirzoyan saluted Blinken’s efforts and said Armenia was still pursuing a peace agreement.
“We believe that a stable and prosperous South Caucasus is in the interest of all regional actors and the broader international community,” Mirzoyan said.
Turn Toward the West
In another shift toward the West, the Armenian parliament last week approved a draft bill to initiate the process of applying to join the European Union.
Russia said Tuesday that the move would make Yerevan’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union — a Moscow-led customs bloc — incompatible.
Russia said its partnership with Armenia was a boon for the landlocked Caucasus country of some three million.
“The United States has never played a stabilizing role in the South Caucasus,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
While Armenia enjoys a “sovereign right to develop bilateral ties,” Peskov said that relations with Russia offer “a significant dividend for Armenia and its people.”
“We intend to develop them further,” he said.
Armenia’s distancing from Russia comes after one of its neighbors, Georgia, moved closer to Moscow and cracked down on pro-Western protests, triggering EU, UK, and US sanctions on its leaders.