Armenia and the United States agreed Monday to expand cooperation in the civil nuclear sector, marking a significant step in Washington’s push to deepen ties with Yerevan following a U.S.-brokered peace deal in the South Caucasus.
Vice President JD Vance met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who signed a deal at the White House in August intended to reopen key transportation routes with Azerbaijan. At that meeting, the countries signed agreements reaffirming their commitment to signing a peace treaty. The text of the treaty was initialed by foreign ministers, which indicates preliminary approval. But the leaders have yet to sign the treaty and parliaments have yet to ratify it.
A statement on the nuclear sector deal was signed by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Vance, who is on a two-day visit to the country. The two said they had completed negotiations on what is known as a 123 Agreement, which allows the U.S. to legally license nuclear technology and equipment to other countries. The agreement will allow up to $5 billion in initial U.S. exports to Armenia, plus an additional $4 billion in longer-term fuel and maintenance contracts, Vance said.
"This agreement will open a new chapter in the deepening energy partnership between Armenia and the United States," Pashinyan said at a joint press conference with Vance. Long heavily dependent on Russia and Iran for its energy supplies, Armenia is now reviewing proposals from U.S., Russian, Chinese, French and South Korean companies to construct a new nuclear reactor to replace its sole, ageing Russian-built nuclear power plant, Metsamor.
"The prime minister has been a great friend of ours and a real ally in peace and development in this region (of) the world,” Vance said at the start of their meeting. "This is, of course, one of the oldest Christian cultures in the entire world, and so I feel a great amount of affinity to the people of Armenia, but also to you and to your administration."
Pashinyan expressed his gratitude toward President Donald Trump and Vance.
"We are very close to that point, if not there yet,” he said, "of no return” in the pursuit of peace.
Vance arrived in Yerevan after spending four days in Milan at the Winter Olympics with his family, and plans to travel to Azerbaijan on Tuesday.
Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev are both on President Trump's new Board of Peace. The group was originally envisioned to oversee the Gaza cease-fire plan, but has since expanded in size and ambition. Trump plans to convene the first meeting of the board in Washington this month.
The deal with the two former Soviet republics calls for the creation of a major transit corridor dubbed the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity. It is expected to connect Azerbaijan and its autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, which are separated by a 32-kilometer-wide (20-mile-wide) patch of Armenian territory.
Baku and Yerevan fought two wars over the Azerbaijani enclave in 2020 and the 1990s. The region had been under the occupation of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since 1994. A six-week war in 2020 resulted in Azerbaijan regaining control of parts of the region and the surrounding areas. In September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a blitz that forced the separatist authorities to capitulate. After Azerbaijan regained full control of Karabakh, most of its 120,000 Armenian residents fled to Armenia.