US And Armenia Sign Nuclear Cooperation Deal During Vance Visit To Yerevan

(Eurasianet) -- US Vice president JD Vance kicked off a three-day visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan with an evening meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. They concluded their discussions with a signing ceremony covering an agreement on peaceful nuclear cooperation.

A statement issued by the Armenian Foreign Ministry prior to the meeting had hinted a signing ceremony was in the offing, saying Vance’s visit will include “events that will deepen relations with Washington and open new areas of cooperation.”

Pashinyan said the agreement will ensure “the diversification of Armenia’s energy resources through the introduction of safe and innovative technologies,” according to the Armenpressnews agency. Pashinyan’s use of the term diversification is code for reducing Armenia’s energy dependency on Russia.

Vance is expected to hold additional talks with Armenian officials on February 10 before traveling to neighboring Azerbaijan for a round of discussions in Baku, according to the Armenian service of RFE/RL. The vice president will be back in Washington by the evening of February 11.

The discussions in both Yerevan and Baku are expected to concentrate on finalizing a provisional peace deal signed by the two states in August in Washington. 

In the days leading up to Vance’s arrival in Yerevan, speculation mounted that the two countries might use the occasion to formalize an implementation framework for TRIPP, or the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, which is the centerpiece of a provisional peace pact. A draft implementational framework outlining TRIPP’s operational structure was unveiled in mid-January.

Armenian officials earlier in February telegraphed that a nuclear cooperation deal was pending with Washington, announcing they would replace the outdated Metsamor nuclear plant with a new facility based on a modular design. The United States is the global leader in modular nuclear technology.

Russia, which built the Metsamor plant and seems to retain hope of winning the contract to build a replacement reactor, tried to head off a US-Armenian nuclear deal. Alexey Likhachev, the head of Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear entity, pitched a “comprehensive cooperation” deal during a February 6 meeting with Armenian parliamentary speaker Alen Simoyan. A Rosatom statement did not define the scope of “comprehensive cooperation.”

US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg is accompanying Vance on his Caucasus tour, signaling that the discussion agenda will not solely focus on TRIPP and nuclear energy.