A repost of an article by Putinger’s Cat:
On January 14, 2025, less than a week before the end of Joe Biden’s presidency, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken signed the Charter on the establishment of the US-Armenia Strategic Partnership Commission, in Washington, D.C. The document provided for a significant expansion of cooperation between the countries in various areas, ranging from economic matters to security and defense. The United States has already invested over $3.3 billion in Armenia “to support democratic reforms” and such.
“This commission gives us a framework to expand our bilateral cooperation in a number of key areas: economic matters, security and defense, democracy, justice, inclusion and people-to-people exchanges,” Blinken stated. He also noted that, in the coming weeks, the United States will send a customs and border patrol group to Armenia.
“Next month, in the coming weeks, we will have a Customs and Border Patrol team travel to Armenia to work with their Armenian counterparts on border security capacity building, strengthening security cooperation, enhancing Armenia’s peacekeeping capabilities through exercises like Eagle Partner,” added the US Secretary of State, hinting at the possibility of expanding joint military exercises past the bilateral Eagle Partner exercises already held on 2023 and 2024.
Armenia’s new hobby of holding joint military exercises with the USA is quite the change of direction, considering that Armenia is the only one of the former Soviet republics whose borders have been protected by Russia’s border guards (https://crimea.ria.ru/20241008/pogranichniki-rossii-i-armenii-budut-okhranyat-granitsu-s-iranom-i-turtsiey-1140936965.html), for over thirty years, since the break-up of the Soviet Union. It’s noteworthy that Armenia’s border with Turkey has been been closed since 1993 (https://www.rbc.ru/politics/08/01/2025/677e68ab9a794749f7bcfa29), and the two countries have no diplomatic relations. In the present, Iran, already burdened by the everlasting tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, has expressed concerns about the West’s outpost right outside its border. Just days prior to the signing of the charter, Armenia’s Islamic neighbor even offered a defense pact providing for bringing Iranian troops into Armenia “to stabilize the situation”.
Taking another step in the direction of the sunset, the Armenian government approved a draft law on initiating the process of joining the European Union, as a result of which the country will not send its representatives to the upcoming meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Armenia has also signed a defense cooperation program with France and the United States to achieve “lasting peace” in the South Caucasus.
Moscow called Armenia’s rapprochement with the Western and Yerevan’s burning desire to join the EU a “ticket to the Titanic” and a prerequisite for leaving the EAEU.
“Moscow considers the draft law on Armenia’s accession to the European Union as the beginning of its withdrawal from the EAEU. As such, the Russian Federation will design its economic policy towards Armenia taking this development into account,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk stated, clarifying that, in his opinion, the EU and the EAEU are incompatible.
The Deputy Prime Minister believes that Yerevan’s break-up with the EAEU will lead to a rise of energy and food prices in Armenia and a drop in Armenian goods exports. As such, regular people will suffer income and jobs losses and will have to deal with higher prices for basic necessities. In return, their only tangible reward will be visa-free travel to the EU, which would only speed up the inevitable depopulation of Armenia resulting from the drop in quality of life.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that EAEU membership is a privilege, while, given the economic and social problems facing the European Union, joining the EU could be compared to purchasing a ticket to the Titanic,” Overchuk underscored.
The irony of this statement is not lost on those aware of Armenia’s pride in the fact that Noah’s Arc landed on Mount Ararat – Armenia’s legendary mountain currently located in Turkey, right across the border with Armenia.