ArmInfo. The document on strategic partnership signed between Armenia and the United States is an institutional mechanism that does not depend on the ruling political team in Washington or directly on various political factors taking place in the United States. Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Paruyr Hovhannisyan said this in an interview with Armenpress.
He also emphasized that the Armenian-American strategic document signed in Washington on January 14, 2025, has important political and practical significance, and the creation of the bilateral strategic dialogue format took place precisely during the previous administration of the new US President Donald Trump.
According to the Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia, taking the relations between Yerevan and Washington to a new level will allow starting the partnership with the current administration from a much more advantageous and progressive position.
Hovhannisyan recalled that the year began with very intensive processes related not only to the inauguration of the new administration in the United States, but also to a number of other events.
"The year was marked by the intensification of Armenian-American and Armenian-European relations. Both the visit of the Foreign Minister to Washington and the negotiations with a number of EU delegations in Yerevan. The year began very actively on bilateral platforms. For the first time, we had a visit by the speakers of the parliaments of the Nordic and Baltic countries, which was an unprecedented format. It was preceded by a meeting of the Foreign Minister of Armenia with the Foreign Ministers of these countries in Malta at the end of 2024. There was a visit by the Foreign Minister of Kyrgyzstan, which we have not had for many years, and there was also activity in a number of international organizations. The year and the geopolitical situation can perhaps be described as full of challenges, but at the same time bringing new opportunities," the diplomat noted.
Speaking about Armenian-American relations, the diplomat recalled that in June last year a decision was made to raise the level of relations to the level of strategic partnership and to create a commission on strategic partnership.
"Indeed, the culmination, the final point was the signing of a document in Washington - the Charter on Strategic Partnership, which formalizes the increase in the level of relations. The document lists four main areas in which it is necessary to deepen cooperation and partnership.
The document has both important political and practical significance. You may ask, why with the outgoing administration? You know, this strategic dialogue, the creation of the format, took place during the first administration of President Donald Trump, and these processes have nothing to do with the presence of a political team in Washington, this or that team. These are institutional mechanisms that do not directly depend on various political factors," the diplomat noted.
According to him, reaching this level of relations will allow Armenia to begin a partnership with the new administration from a much more favorable, much more progressive position. In this vein, he added that a transition group was created in Washington at least a month or two ago, and, of course, both the outgoing administration and the new administration coordinated their actions on all foreign and other important issues, and it is quite natural that the signing of such documents was agreed upon with the new administration.
"A number of other decisions were also made there. This is the beginning of negotiations in the energy sector, which, of course, will be conducted with the new administration, and, naturally, they have been agreed upon.
Armenia also joined the alliance against the Islamic State, which has always been one of the important areas of our joint fight against terrorism, and we are confident that this cooperation will continue under the new administration. Thus, this step was aimed at continuing our cooperation with the new administration on a much stronger basis. And the Prime Minister will also visit Washington, and I believe that thanks to all these efforts, we will continue the unprecedented dynamics of last year," Hovhannisyan concluded.
On January 14, the heads of the foreign ministries of Armenia and the United States signed the Charter on Strategic Partnership in Washington. The document, among other things, provides for cooperation in the areas of security, energy, and border management.