Armenia can rely on Washington to assist it ‘normalize’ relations with Azerbaijan, the US Predsident mentioned
US President Joe Biden pledged on Thursday to help Armenia’s “sovereignty and safety,” every week after greater than 100 of Yerevan’s troops have been killed in clashes with Azerbaijan’s forces. Whereas a number of US officers have declared their help for Armenia, the White Home additionally gives navy assist to Azerbaijan.
“We are going to proceed to help the Armenian folks’s democratic aspiration, sovereignty, and safety,” Biden’s message to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan learn, in accordance with the Armenian media.
The message, marking Armenia’s Independence Day, continued with a promise by Biden to “redouble our diplomacy so Armenia can look to a affluent and peaceable future, which incorporates normalization of relations with neighbors.”
Armenia and Azerbaijan are at odds over the Nagorno-Karabakh area, which has been managed by ethnic Armenians for the reason that Nineties, however is claimed by Baku as its personal. Clashes over Nagorno-Karabakh erupted final Tuesday, with each side accusing one another of instigating the violence. Armenia, an ally of Russia, appealed to the Russian-led Collective Safety Treaty Group (CSTO) for help, and whereas the CSTO kept away from sending troops, Azerbaijan provided a truce shortly afterwards.
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Yerevan mentioned afterwards that it had misplaced 135 troops within the preventing, whereas Baku put its personal loss of life toll at 79 troopers. The battle was the second time in two years that the neighboring nations have fought over Nagorno-Karabakh, with a 44-day struggle in 2020 leaving greater than 6,000 lifeless earlier than it ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire.
Whereas Biden’s message didn’t spell out what the US would do to bolster Armenia’s safety, it echoes statements by different high American officers. Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Yerevan final week, the place she condemned the “unlawful and lethal assaults by Azerbaijan” and declared “the territorial safety and sovereignty of Armenia” to be a precedence for Washington.
In his personal Independence Day message to Yerevan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeated Biden’s promise of help for “the Armenian folks’s democratic aspiration, sovereignty, and safety” verbatim.
Nevertheless, in accordance with a Authorities Accountability Workplace report, the US gave Azerbaijan over $164 million in navy assist between 2002 and 2020, with successive presidents waiving a 1992 prohibition on arms shipments to Baku. Armenian activists within the US have repeatedly referred to as on the White Home to cease all navy assist to Azerbaijan, however Biden once more waived the prohibition in June.