Washington is in a hurry to strengthen its strategic presence in the South Caucasus

After the first information about Marco Rubio’s visit spread, under the influence of domestic political and campaign sentiments, the primary perception of almost everyone was that this is being carried out exclusively for the purpose of providing political support to the current authorities of Armenia, especially to Nikol Pashinyan.

However, the subsequent events and the study of the contents of the signed documents showed a much deeper and broader geopolitical picture.

As a matter of fact, Rubio’s visit was not so much about Armenia’s domestic political agenda as it was about US global strategic interests in the South Caucasus.

The main objectives of the visit were obviously the following:

◉ Rapid establishment of US strategic presence in the region,
◉ political and legal strengthening of the TRIPP project,
◉ Expanding control of critical minerals supply chains;
◉ Integration of the South Caucasus into the Western geo-economic system,
◉ Designing a new corridor architecture bypassing Iran and Russia,
◉ Limitation of China’s “One Belt, One Road” strategy.

And only at the end of all this, a demonstration of political support for the current authorities of Armenia, before the elections.

However, there is an extremely important circumstance here.

If the primary purpose of the visit was political “support”, then it is hard to imagine that the US Secretary of State would be limited to meetings in the airport format and would actually be in Armenia for only about 40 minutes, without a full state visit protocol, without deep political contacts and even without a meeting with the Prime Minister.

This in itself is a very telling political impulse.

It shows that the priority for Washington at this stage is not the internal political fate of Armenia, but the quick fixing of a new regional geo-economic and geo-political architecture.

And the authorities of Armenia in this process are considered mainly as the current operational partner in the implementation of that strategy.

In other words, a much bigger game is going on in the South Caucasus today than the usual pre-election campaign.

The region is emerging as an important hub of global power conflict, new geo-economic corridors, energy control and global realignments.

And it is at this historical and extremely dangerous stage that our compatriots must answer the most important question on June 7. Are the current authorities of Armenia and Nikol Pashinyan able to skillfully, coolly and state-mindedly manage the helm of the country in such complex geopolitical conditions?

Can they protect Armenia’s interest in a reality where big states fight not for declarations, but for corridors, resources, spheres of influence and strategic control?

I think the answer is obvious.

The state cannot safely go through such a historical storm with random decisions, situational politics and the logic of adapting to the agendas of external forces.
At this stage, Armenia does not need another propaganda administration, but state thinking, experience, calculation and national responsibility.

Davit Ananyan, former chairman of the RA SRC

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