USA offered strategic partnership to Armenia

Yerevan and Washington will create the Strategic Partnership Commission. It was announced at the opening of the last session of Strategic Dialogue between Armenia and the USA.

The respective statements were made by James O’Brien, the Deputy State Secretary for Europe and Eurasia, and Ararat Mirzoyan, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Armenia.

Why do the United States need strategic partnership with Armenia? 

Igor Korotchenko, the General Director of the Caspian Institute for Strategic Studies (Russia) and the political analyst, in his interview to Vestnik Kavkaza explained the interests of the USA in transforming the relations with Armenia into the strategic partnership status. 

«This is the continuation of the same course, which started during the preceding authorities of Armenia, when the biggest American embassy in the FSU territory was established in Yerevan. The objective of the USA in Armenia is set a strong foothold in the South Caucasus, to force out Russia and to re-format the region for achieving the American geopolitical tasks. Signing the strategic partnership agreement signals an important stage of anchoring Washington in the region and simultaneous shrinking of Russian-Armenian military and defense cooperation», he said in the first place. 

«In the long run it may result in establishing American military bases in Armenia. In the first instance, we are talking about the US Air Force base in Erebuni and about deployment of the electronic intelligence center of the NSA USA for electronic espionage, especially against Iran, but also against Russia and other countries in the region. Of course, in this respect Armenia is of implicit interest for American authorities. On top of that, one of the Washington’s objective is launching destructive processes in the FSU territory. In the long run, they will try to create the instability belt in order to open the second front against Russia in the South», Igor Korotchenko informed. 

Them political analyst focused on the contradicting statements by American diplomats about supporting the peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia with the true objectives of Washington in the region. «The United States strive to prevent the parties coming up with a comprehensive peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan. They also support military ambition of Yerevan by supplying various types of weapon and by training Armenian officers and generals in American military schools and academies. When the relations are upgraded to the strategic partnership level, the CIA will become an important partner of foreign intelligence service of Armenia. In parallel, the USA set the target of complete break of the allied relations between Armenia and Russia, and guaranteeing Yerevan lack of any problems in case Armenia exits the CSTO», he emphasized. 

Why would Armenia accept the offer from the US? 

The CISS General Director noted the commitment of the Armenian authorities to deeper and more comprehensive interaction with the USA. «Nikol Pashinyan, the Armenian Prime Minister, and his team are the pro-Western clientele. Being in opposition to the government, for a long time they have been using different formats of connections with American NGOs. Naturally, after “the velvet revolution” in 2018, Pashinyan’s drift towards the West became the mainstream of Armenian politics. After the end of Karabakh war in 2020 and anti-terrorist action in Karabakh in 2023, Armenia is much less looking at Russia and strives for complete re-formatting its foreign policy priorities», Igor Korotchenko explained. 

«Of course, amid all this strategy, the Achilles’ heel of Armenia is still the economy, because it depends on Russia to a great extent. The trade and economic ties within the EAEU allowed the Armenian GDP (including because of the anti-Russian sanctions) to achieve absolutely fantastic levels. Obviously, this is not a barrier for Pashinyan and his team, their main task is to keep hold of power. In this regards, relying on the USA as a new strategic partner will to a big extent determine future geopolitical and military processes in the region», the political analyst concluded.