Vice President Vance's visit successfully broadened US economic and strategic engagement with Armenia and Azerbaijan, moving past the initial focus on the Middle Corridor trade route.

In Baku, the US and Azerbaijan signed a Strategic Partnership Charter, pledging to expand cooperation in energy, aerospace, digital infrastructure, AI, and defense, including the transfer of coastal defense vessels.

The main outcome in Yerevan was a nuclear energy agreement that positions the US as the leading contender to build a new nuclear power plant in Armenia, alongside a major sale of surveillance and drone technology.

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 thedevelopmentof 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 includedthe signingof a US-Azerbaijani Charter on Strategic Partnership.

While much of the document is devoted to maximizing the economic potential ofTRIPP, 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. Vancenotedat 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.

Source: ZeroHedge News