YEREVAN -- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed support for Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian during a short stopover at Yerevan's Zvartnots airport on May 26, less than two weeks before parliamentary elections in the Caucasus nation.
Rubio met with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan during a brief refueling stop as he was returning from multilateral talks in India.
Speaking next to Mirzoyan, Rubio said: “Both yourself and the prime minister and your entire team here in Armenia are blazing the trail towards a brighter and more independent future for Armenia.”
Rubio added: "I am very happy to be here to show my support for their courage, my support for their vision, my support for their dedication, my support for their willingness to see for the future of their country and what it takes to get there.”
Pashinian, who came to power on the back of anti-corruption street protests in 2018, is seeking reelection on June 7 as he attempts to reorient his country away from Russia and toward the West.
He has frozen Armenia's membership in the Russian-led CSTO military alliance and, earlier in May, hosted a summit with several European leaders that was also attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, triggering criticism from Moscow.
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US Steps Up South Caucasus Push As Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Hangs In BalanceA day before Rubio's visit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Armenia, which still is dependent on Russian energy supplies, could lose “a very, very attractive and more than preferential price for Russian gas" if it turned away from Russia.
During Rubio’s visit, the two ministers initialed an agreement on the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP). The proposed 43-kilometer road-and-rail corridor through Armenia would link Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave while opening a new east-west trade artery bypassing Russia and Iran.
The transit route is part of a peace agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump in August 2025 between Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that looks to end decades of frozen and hot conflicts between the two countries.
Speaking after the initialing, Rubio noted that he was “pleased to further advance President Trump’s vision of the future courageous path towards peace in the South Caucasus.”
The two foreign ministers also renewed a “strategic partnership charter” between the two countries as well as a memorandum of understanding on critical minerals.
Foreign Minister Mirzoyan used the visit to underline Yerevan's growing alliance with Washington.
"It would not be an exaggeration to say that we have entered a historically unprecedented stage, given the frequent and regular developments in our bilateral agenda,” he said.