U.S. Has ‘Nothing to Announce’ Regarding Strategic Partnership with Armenia
The State Department said that it has “nothing to consider or announce” regarding signing a strategic partnership with Armenia.
A State Department spokesperson responded to the Voice of America Armenian Service, which inquired whether a meeting is scheduled between U.S. and Armenian officials in the neat future about such an agreement.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on Wednesday did not deny reports that the United States and Armenia are poised to sign an agreement on “strategic partnership” that will underscore their deepening relations.
“We have a strategic dialogue which we agreed to upgrade to strategic partnership,” Mirzoyan said at a news conference. “A document or documents regarding this are certainly under discussion.”
He said that American and Armenian officials will hold more talks on the matter soon and urged reporters to “wait for a few days.”
Mirzoyan and James O’Brien, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, announced plans to “upgrade the status of our bilateral dialogue to a Strategic Partnership Commission” after chairing a session of a U.S.-Armenian task force in Yerevan in June.
Defense Minister Suren Papikyan met with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a visit to Washington last month. Austin said they discussed “our growing strategic partnership through training and exercises, military education, and capacity-building.”
“We are developing our relations with the United States, not with its incumbent or outgoing administration,” Mirzoyan said. “Also, we already have contacts with the incoming administration, the president-elect and his teammates.”
