NEW YORK, April 9. /TASS/. The United States should refrain from further meddling in the South Caucasus if it is serious about helping Armenia have a happy future, said James Carden, a former adviser to the US State Department.
"Washington may not like it, but if Armenia has any chance at a happy future—and a magnificent, ancient Christian civilization like Armenia certainly deserves one—we need to stop meddling in the Caucasus and limit the damage we have already done in the post-Soviet space," the expert wrote for The American Conservative.
Despite Yerevan’s ambitions to boost relations with the European Union and the United States, "not all experts are impressed by the newly announced deal" to allocate 270 mln euros to support the Armenian economy in the next four years, Carden said. He described the path toward Yerevan’s rapprochement with Brussels and Washington as "well-trodden and extremely dangerous for those who have set out upon it."
The expert also called on the government of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to learn from the experience of Ukraine and Georgia. According to him, the two former Soviet republics "believed the fulsome promises of Western integration, including NATO accession, from their Western patrons in Brussels and Washington."
On April 5, a meeting took place in Brussels between Pashinyan, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the EU’s diplomacy chief Josep Borrell. Von der Leyen announced that the bloc was proposing a 270 mln euro plan in grants for Armenia for 2024-2027.
The Russian Foreign Ministry urged Yerevan not to allow the West to deceive it and lead Armenia astray. Moscow viewed the meeting as "yet another attempt by the collective West to drag the South Caucasus into geopolitical confrontation" the ministry said in a statement.