A more substantive agenda for the visit of the U.S. Vice President — I was thinking, how else could we have made it more substantive? Visits with such a substantive agenda are not frequent. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this during the National Assembly–Government question-and-answer session, responding to criticism from the opposition following U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance’s visit to Armenia.
“What was on the agenda? There was TRIPP, the three memorandums of intent we signed in Washington on August 8. You remember, at the time they were also saying, well, it’s just a memorandum of intent. And I was saying that this is precisely so that processes can later take place on their basis. Moreover, within the framework of TRIPP, possible electricity, power transmission lines, pipelines, cables, and railways were discussed. To be honest, I am now trying to recall when we last had more extensive discussions — I mean economic and political ones — I am not even mentioning security issues, because this is the first time. Moreover, it is not common for the United States, during an official visit, to publicly demonstrate that it is supplying the most modern reconnaissance equipment to the Republic of Armenia. This indicates that the path to military-technical cooperation between Armenia and the United States has been opened. The point of showing that UAV is that, in essence, it is a green light for Armenia–U.S. military-technical cooperation,” the Prime Minister said.
“We would cut off our hands before falsifying elections. How many elections have been falsified since 2018?” Pashinyan said, referring to accusations from the opposition about election rigging.
Speaking about EU investments, the Prime Minister said that at this stage there are programs worth €900 million, and these programs will increase in the near future. There will also be investments within the framework of the Sisian–Kajaran section construction package of the North–South corridor.
As for UAVs produced in Armenia, Pashinyan said: “I will not hide it — there are good products in Armenia, and we are also procuring those good products. We are procuring good products from the United States as well, and we are ready to sell good products to the United States; this is very normal cooperation, and we will try to continue in that spirit,” he said.
