WASHINGTON, January 14. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and visiting Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan have signed a document on strategic partnership between their countries.
"We're establishing our US-Armenian Strategic Partnership Commission," Blinken said at the beginning of the meeting with Mirzoyan at the Department of State.
According to the top US diplomat, this commission will set 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."
"I just want to underscore that really lays the foundation for even deeper cooperation, and it builds on our shared principles," Blinken added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference on the results of Russia’s diplomacy in 2024 that Armenia’s government should settle its problems with its neighbors by rather than seek support from the European Union and the United States. "Someday, we will inevitably arrive at what Russia is saying, namely that Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran - the countries of this region - must settle their problems with their neighbors," he said when asked about potential effect of Armenia’s rapprochement with the West on regional security.
The minister said that he sees no problems from the point of view of Armenia’s contacts with Western countries and the European Union. "But when countries distant from our territory, traditions, understanding of history in its non-colonial dimension say that a European Union mission will ensure security in the Syunik district, for example, I can hardly understand this," Lavrov said.