Political scientist: High-level Armenian-U.S. contacts expected in near future
High-level contacts between Armenia and the United States are expected in early 2022, political scientist Suren Sargsyan said on Monday.
"If we look back at history, we see that the high-level contacts between Armenia and the U.S. reached their peak at a time when there was an opportunity to make progress on the Artsakh issue or the prospect of normalizing Armenian-Turkish ties,” he wrote on Facebook.
The expert cited first Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan's visit to Washington in 1994, adding his approach to the two issues enjoyed the support of the Clinton administration, second President Robert Kocharyan's Key West meeting in 2002 and third President Serzh Sargsyan’s meeting with then U.S. President Barack Obama, followed by two visits of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Armenia.
“As the former under secretary of state once told me, "our president will never put his credibility into a process “doomed to failure”. If the process has a positive outcome for the U.S., the president will personally get involved."
“With this in mind, I expect high-level Armenian-U.S. contacts in the near future, driven by the same agenda issues. These contacts do not entail a positive attitude towards our authorities. The U.S. has its own interests in our region, and they can be realized if there are no conflicts here.
“There can be no Armenian-Turkish reconciliation process or any settlement to the Artsakh issue without the involvement of the US president, especially when Biden himself urged Erdogan to launch the Armenian-Turkish process.
“In the near future, Armenian officials will be invited to Washington and encouraged to take clear and swift steps. The same naturally goes for Turkey and Azerbaijan. After all, the November 9 statement and the Sochi arrangements have already been legitimized by Brussels and Paris, and now it is Washington's turn,” Sargsyan noted.