Armenia to hold joint military exercises with US

The upcoming joint military exercises between the United States and Armenia are causing concern in Russia against the backdrop of another military escalation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. “Moscow will deeply analyze this news and monitor the situation,” Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian president, said on September 6. The Armenian Defense Ministry announced the conduct of maneuvers with the US military from September 11 to 20 in Armenia as part of “preparation for participation in international peacekeeping missions.”

In the Eagle Partner 2023 exercise, the military will conduct operations “to stabilize relations between the conflicting parties in the performance of peacekeeping tasks.” Another goal is the readiness of the Armenian armed forces in accordance with the planned indicators of the NATO Partnership for Peace program. During the maneuvers, heavy equipment will be used, 175 Armenian and 85 American soldiers and officers will take part in them, Reuters reports citing statements by Pentagon officials.

In January, Armenia refused to hold the CSTO exercises “Indestructible Brotherhood – 2023” planned on its territory. The military from Russia and other countries participating in the union were supposed to take part in them. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan justified this decision by saying that Moscow does not provide proper support to Yerevan against the backdrop of the ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, and under these conditions, the presence of Russian armed forces on the territory of Armenia “does not guarantee the security of the republic, but, on the contrary, creates threats.”

In August, the Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations did not participate in the joint CSTO exercises in Belarus to eliminate the accident at a nuclear facility.

Armenia has been interacting with NATO in various formats for several years, including under the program of joint exercises in preparation for peacekeeping missions, said Alexander Iskandaryan, director of the Caucasus Institute. The expert recalled that the Armenian peacekeepers have repeatedly taken part in the post-conflict settlement in Iraq and Afghanistan. “In this case, an ordinary event is planned, which in no way blocks the process of interaction between Russia and Armenia,” the expert noted.

Another thing, Iskandaryan continues, is that after the defeat of Armenia in the second Karabakh war, the country is maximally interested in diversifying its foreign policy, in searching for new potential allies. “Yerevan recently started buying weapons from India and expanded the level of interaction with Western countries,” the expert says. – For Armenia, the problem of security is an existential issue. Nevertheless, the Armenian authorities are interested in preserving the tools for resolving various issues in Russian-Armenian relations, including within the framework of the CSTO.”

The Armenian prime minister criticized the policy of the Russian authorities in the Caucasian direction in an interview with La Repubblica on September 3. He called it a “strategic mistake” for Armenia to rely 100% on Russia for security and arms supplies. “The country has tasted the bitter fruits of this mistake and is only now trying to diversify its security strategy,” he added. In addition, Pashinyan suggested that Moscow is gradually withdrawing from the South Caucasus region: “One day we will wake up and see that Russia is not here.” He also accused Russian peacekeepers of losing control of the Lachin corridor linking Yerevan with Nagorno-Karabakh, which runs counter to the text of the November 2020 tripartite statement that ended the 2020 war.

Since April, Nagorno-Karabakh has actually been under blockade after Baku installed its own checkpoint in the area of ​​the Lachin corridor. As a result, a convoy of trucks with humanitarian cargo has accumulated on the Armenian side of the state border since July 26. Baku does not allow their passage, arguing that the crossing of the state border should take place in accordance with the customs legislation of Azerbaijan. Instead, they suggest that humanitarian organizations use the alternative Agdam-Askeran road on the Azerbaijani side. On August 29, the Red Crescent Society tried to send two trucks with 40 tons of flour along this road, but the convoy was blocked by local residents at the entrance to the region.

On September 5, Peskov, in response to an interview with Pashinyan, told reporters that Russia respects the Prime Minister of Armenia, but is not going to leave the South Caucasus. He also added that Moscow will continue to play the role of a guarantor of stability and security in the region, including Nagorno-Karabakh. On the same day, the Russian Foreign Ministry suggested that the Armenian authorities place a CSTO mission on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in order to minimize the number of border incidents. “The ball is on the side of Yerevan. All other member countries of the organization expressed their readiness for this step,” said the official representative of the Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.

Since the end of August, Baku and Yerevan have been accusing each other of shelling their territory along the common border. In one of these clashes, on September 1, four Armenian servicemen were killed near the Armenian village of Sotk, according to the Armenian Defense Ministry.

Pashinyan is unhappy that the Russian side continues to take a balanced position in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, Stanislav Pritchin, senior researcher at the Center for Post-Soviet Studies at the IMEMO RAS, said. According to him, the Armenian authorities are interested in involving the Russian Armed Forces in a dispute with Baku on the side of Yerevan, which does not correspond to Russia’s interests. “First of all, it is important for Moscow to achieve peace between the parties, and not to increase confrontation,” the expert added.

On the other hand, Pritchin continues, the Armenian leadership would like to abdicate responsibility for the catastrophic situation around Nagorno-Karabakh and shift onto Russian shoulders their miscalculations that led to the current status quo in the region: “Such rhetoric, from the point of view of Yerevan, gives them an opportunity to justify oneself for not fulfilling the points of the tripartite statement before the international community.” At the same time, Russia remains the uncontested guarantor of Armenia’s security, since neither France, nor the United States, nor NATO as a whole can assume this function due to geographical and political reasons, the expert concluded.