Vance visits Armenia, a country no U.S. president or vice president has ever visited

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Vice President J.D. Vance arrived in Armenia on Monday — a country no U.S. vice president or president has visited before — where the Trump administration offered economic opportunities as it works to advance a U.S.-brokered deal aimed at ending the decades-long conflict with Azerbaijan.

Vance and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed an agreement to advance negotiations on a civil nuclear energy agreement, and Vance said that the United States is ready to export advanced computer chips and surveillance drones to Armenia, and invest in the country’s infrastructure.

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The visit comes after Pashinyan signed an agreement at the White House in August with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, where the leaders signed agreements confirming their commitment to signing a peace treaty. The text of the treaty was initialed by the foreign ministers, indicating approval in principle. But leaders have not yet signed the treaty and parliaments have not yet ratified it.

“Peace is not made by cautious people,” said Vance, who plans to travel to Azerbaijan on Tuesday. “Peace is not made by people who are too focused on the past. Peace is made by people who are too focused on the future.”

The August agreement between the two former Soviet republics calls for the creation of a major transit corridor dubbed the Trump Path to International Peace and Prosperity. It is expected to connect Azerbaijan with the autonomous region of Nakhchivan, which is separated by a 32-kilometre-wide swath of Armenian territory.

The land bridge has been a sticking point in resolving the nearly four-decade-long conflict over control of the Karabakh region, known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh. The region has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since 1994. A six-week war in 2020 led to Azerbaijan regaining control over parts of the region and surrounding areas. In September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a lightning attack that forced the separatist authorities to surrender. After Azerbaijan regained full control over Karabakh, most of its 120,000 Armenian population fled to Armenia.

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Vance said the Armenian Prime Minister had his support in the upcoming elections and emphasized that the country was among the oldest to identify as Christian.

Pashinyan expressed his gratitude to President Donald Trump and Vance, noting that he accepted an invitation to participate in the first meeting of the Trump Peace Council on February 19 in Washington. The group, founded by Trump, oversees the Gaza ceasefire plan.

He said that Vance’s visit was “truly of historical and symbolic importance” and that it “reflects the depth of the strong and strategic partnership established between the Republic of Armenia and the United States of America.”

The Vice President and his wife Usha arrived in Yerevan after spending four days in Milan to attend the Winter Olympics with their family. They were received by a red carpet, an honor guard, and a delegation of officials. Armenian and American flags were hung from poles as the delegation headed to the vice president’s meeting, with some demonstrators standing on the side of the road, including one protester holding a sign that read, “Does Trump support the devils?”

Associated Press writers Josh Bock in Washington and Daria Litvinova in Tallinn contributed to this report.