Armenia launches military drills with US amid souring ties with Russia

YEREVAN, Armenia — Armenia on Monday launched joint navy drills with the USA, a transfer that displays its chief’s efforts to forge nearer ties with the U.S. and different Western allies because the nation’s relations with outdated ally Russia bitter.

The “Eagle Accomplice” battle video games are aimed toward growing the interoperability of items collaborating in worldwide peacekeeping missions, in line with Armenia’s Protection Minister Suren Papikyan.

They contain Armenian peacekeeping forces, servicemen of the U.S. Military Europe and Africa, and the Kansas Nationwide Guard. It wasn’t instantly clear what number of troops have been collaborating.

The workouts have been scheduled to final via July 24.

Russia has been Armenia’s most important financial accomplice and ally for the reason that 1991 Soviet collapse. Landlocked Armenia, which was once a part of the Soviet Union, hosts a Russian navy base and is a part of the Moscow-led safety alliance, the Collective Safety Treaty Group.

Armenia’s ties with Russia, nonetheless, have grown more and more strained since Azerbaijan waged a lightning navy marketing campaign final 12 months to take the Karabakh area, ending three many years of ethnic Armenian separatist rule there.

Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers who have been deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh after a earlier spherical of hostilities in 2020 of failing to cease Azerbaijan’s onslaught. Moscow rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.

Russia has engaged in a fragile balancing act, attempting to protect shut relations with Armenia whereas additionally sustaining heat ties with Azerbaijan and its most important ally Turkey, a key financial accomplice for Moscow amid Western sanctions.

The Kremlin has been angered by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s efforts to deepen Armenia’s ties with the West and distance his nation from Moscow-dominated alliances. Russia was significantly vexed by Armenia’s choice to hitch the Worldwide Prison Courtroom, which final 12 months indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged battle crimes related to Russia’s battle in Ukraine.

Because the rift with Russia stored widening, Armenia froze its participation within the Russian-dominated safety alliance, canceled its involvement in joint navy drills and snubbed the bloc’s summits.

In September 2023, Armenia additionally held the “Eagle Accomplice” drills, eliciting dismay in Moscow, the place officers referred to as the transfer “unfriendly.”