Pundit: US seeks to oust Russia out of region through military cooperation with Armenia

Armenian political analyst David Arutyunov has said that the US is more interested in military cooperation with Armenia so that to compete with Russia in the region.

He made the remarks commenting on the results of the meeting between the Chief of General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces and the American military leadership, Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.

Earlier, the Armenian Defence Ministry reported that the head of the Armenian General Staff, Lt. Gen. Edward Asryan, discussed with the Deputy Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces Christopher Grady and the Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, Gen. Charles Brown, the issues of cooperation between the two countries in the defence sphere.

During the meetings, several issues related to the current state of the Armenian-American defence cooperation, as well as the implementation of programmes and joint activities were discussed. In particular, the discussion focused on the introduction of a professional non-commissioned officer system and broader cooperation in the sphere of the Air Force.

According to Arutyunov, there has been cooperation on some of these issues before, rather than expanding cooperation.

"For example, army reforms, some segments of combat training, etc. A new item here is the paragraph on cooperation in the air force sphere, although it is not clear yet what exactly we are talking about," Arutyunov said.

The possibility of launching military-technical cooperation between the two countries depends, according to the political analyst, on many factors, including the financial capabilities of the Armenian side.

Given the Armenian side's interest in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their low cost compared to aircraft, it is not excluded that possible cooperation concerns this very segment. Much depends on what kind of weapons Yerevan might be interested in.

For example, at one time, Russia's sale of air defence systems (S-400) to Türkiye caused Ankara to drop out of a crucial air defence cooperation programme with the US.

"That is, if we are talking about a systemic purchase, which affects different spheres, is related to serious information in the field of technology, then it is, of course, a serious problem (since Armenia is a CSTO member state). But I don't think that Armenia will buy any complex systems from the US, it is unlikely in financial terms. But if we are talking about some local acquisition with limited efficiency, then in this case some compromise option is possible," Arutyunov said.

As for Washington, the Armenian market is too small from the point of view of sales, they will be interested in this cooperation, first of all, in political terms.