“We have a strategic dialogue which we agreed to upgrade to strategic partnership,” Mirzoyan told a news conference. “A document or documents regarding this are certainly under discussion.”
He said that officials from the two countries will hold more talks for that purpose soon. Asked when the talks will take place, he urged journalists to “wait for a few days.”
Arman Babajanian, the leader of a pro-Western party not represented in the Armenian parliament, said on Tuesday that the agreement will be signed in Washington next week. He said that it will cover “several key directions,” including defense and security.
Mirzoyan and James O’Brien, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, announced plans to “upgrade the status of our bilateral dialogue to a Strategic Partnership Commission” after chairing a session of a U.S.-Armenian task force in Yerevan in June.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry expressed concern at that development which came Armenia’s deepening rift its longtime ally. It warned that “strategic partnership” with Washington sought by Yerevan could only create additional security risks and economic problems for Armenia. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government has since continued its efforts to reorient the country towards the West.
Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikian met with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a visit to Washington last month. Austin said they discussed “our growing strategic partnership through training and exercises, military education, and capacity-building.”
The corresponding U.S.-Armenian agreement would be signed just days before U.S. President Joe Biden will complete his term in office and hand over power to Donald Trump. Mirzoyan indicated that Pashinian’s administration is not worried that Trump may not adhere to it.
“We are developing our relations with the United States, not with its incumbent or outgoing administration,” he said. “Also, we already have contacts with the incoming administration, the president-elect and his teammates.”