The delegation comprising three senators and five congressmen met Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, other senior Armenian officials and opposition lawmakers and inspected a section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border during the trip.
“We are here as friends and we want to strengthen our partnership,” Ben Cardin, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a joint news conference with other members of the delegation and Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian.
“We want to expand ties between our countries in the security, economic and political fields and we will try to find ways of building on the progress made by us,” Cardin said.
The lawmakers endorsed the Armenian government’s efforts to end the conflict with Azerbaijan. Cardin hit out at Russia in that context, saying that Moscow is “no friend to reaching the final agreements with Azerbaijan.”
Roger Wicker, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, claimed, for his part, that Russia as well as neighboring Iran do not want to see democracy and freedom in Armenia and are unhappy with what he described as signifcant progress made by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's administration on that front. Yerevan is determined to push back against Moscow and Tehran, he said.
Representative Joe Wilson, who heads the mostly congressional U.S. Helsinki Commission, described Armenia as an “important partner” of the United States, saying that it is trying to “distance itself” from Russia and move closer to the West. The Pashinian government’s “independent foreign policy” is countering Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempts to “restore the Soviet Union,” Wilson said, adding that the U.S. should help to make the South Caucasus country more resilient to external pressure.
The U.S. and the European Union have supported Pashinian and his policies throughout his six-year rule. The Armenian premier “has done an extraordinary job leading his country in very, very difficult times,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a congressional hearing in Washington in May.
Armenian opposition leaders increasingly accuse the West of turning a blind eye to undemocratic practices and human rights abuses in Armenia for geopolitical reasons.
Several parliament deputies representing the country’s two main opposition alliances met with the visiting U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday. Neither alliance issued a statement on the meeting.
