US forces to hold joint drills with former Soviet republic Armenia

Armenia will host joint drills with US peacekeeping forces next week, officials in Yerevan said Wednesday, the latest sign of the ex-Soviet republic’s drift away from traditional ally Russia. The report came a day after Russia dismissed Yerevan’s criticism of Russian peacekeepers over their failure to maintain order at the Lachin corridor, the sole road linking Armenia to the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The exercise, Eagle Partner 2023, will be held on 11-20 September in Armenia’s Zar training centre “to increase the level of interoperability” between Armenian and US forces participating in international peacekeeping missions, Armenia’s defence ministry said in a statement. “The exercise involves stabilisation tasks between conflicting parties during peacekeeping mission.” The manoeuvres will be held amid a spat between Yerevan and Moscow over the role of the 2,000-strong Russian peacekeeping contingent that has patrolled the Lachin corridor since a 2020 Russian-brokered ceasefire ended a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan for control of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that Moscow was either “unable or unwilling” to control the Lachin corridor which Yerevan says is under Azerbaijani blockade that has stopped food from getting to Armenian-populated towns. Marking a major foreign policy shift, Pashinyan has also said that Yerevan’s longstanding reliance on Russia to guarantee the country’s security was a “strategic mistake.” His wife was on Wednesday in Kyiv to attend a meeting of first ladies and gentlemen and deliver humanitarian aid for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia has a permanent military base in Armenia which is part of the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation. Russia on Tuesday rejected the criticism, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that “Russia continues to fulfil its role as a guarantor of security… Russia is not going anywhere and is not going to go anywhere.” Tensions between Baku and Yerevan have escalated sharply in recent months, as both sides accuse the other of cross-border attacks. The two sides have been unable to reach a lasting peace settlement despite mediation efforts by the European Union, United States and Russia.