US-Azerbaijan Sign Charter On Strategic Partnership

(Eurasianet) -- Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan succeeded in widening the scope of US economic engagement with the two South Caucasus nations. In the months immediately after Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a provisional peace deal in Washington last August, the Trump administration’s focus was on the development of the Middle Corridor trade and logistics network. But now other sectors, including civilian nuclear energy, arms sales and artificial intelligence, are part of the discussion.

Vance’s stop in Baku on February 10-11 included the signing of a US-Azerbaijani Charter on Strategic Partnership. While much of the document is devoted to maximizing the economic potential of TRIPP, or the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, there are numerous provisions indicating that the partnership aims to have a much broader foundation.

The two sides pledge to “mobilize public and private sector investment” to expand not just TRIPP, but also Azerbaijan’s energy and aerospace sectors and the country’s digital infrastructure. The document additionally expresses an intention to “expand collaboration on developing AI partnerships.”

Defense and security cooperation are also in play. Vance noted at the signing ceremony that the US will send an undisclosed number of coastal defense vessels to Azerbaijan for use in the country’s sector of the Caspian Sea. 

The US-Azerbaijani relationship “is one that will stick and is one that will continue to produce great fruits for both of our peoples,” Vance said.

Notably, the partnership document outlines an intent to deepen civilian nuclear cooperation, underscoring a US effort to muscle into a Eurasian energy market that has long been dominated by Russia. The countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia are embracing nuclear energy as a means of meeting rapidly growing power needs. 

The main outcome of Vance’s stop in Armenia was a nuclear energy agreement that positions the United States as the front-runner to secure the contract to build a new nuclear plant in the country. A final decision on the tender likely will not come until after Armenia holds parliamentary elections on June 7. 

Somewhat overshadowed by the nuclear agreement, Vance in Yerevan disclosed “a major sale of military technology” in the form of “surveillance and drone technology to the Armenians.”

Vance went on to say that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will use the new arms “to secure his country and to make sure that the peace we are creating sticks.”