Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian committed to such an arrangement during talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on August 8. A relevant U.S.-Armenian memorandum signed there reportedly calls for a long-term U.S. lease on the corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s strategic Syunik province bordering Iran.
Russia reacted cautiously to the transport agreement. It implied that the preliminary deal must not be at odds with Armenia’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russian-led trade bloc, and the presence of Russian border guards along the Armenian-Iranian border.
Overchuk said last week that he will travel to Yerevan to discuss “some nuances related primarily to the unblocking of communication routes in the South Caucasus.” The Armenian government did not explicitly mention the issue in a statement on Overchuk’s meeting with Pashinian. It said the two men discussed bilateral commercial ties and “cooperation within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union.”
Overchuk also held a separate meeting with Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian. An official readout of the talks said they agreed that regional transport links must be restored with “full respect” for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the regional states.
The Russian vice-premier was accompanied by Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, who is not known to have dealt with Russian-Armenian economic issues. Tigran Grigorian, a Yerevan-based political analyst, suggested that the main purpose of their visit was to “clarify details” of the U.S.-Armenian transit deal that have not been made public yet.
“In recent years, Russia has been trying to gain control over those communication routes or at least to be their facilitator,” Grigorian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “We have seen that these efforts have largely failed. The fact that even a private American company could now perform that function cannot but worry Moscow.”
“America's presence on this strategically important front certainly cannot be welcomed by Russia,” he said.
Armenia - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian make statements to the press after talks in Yerevan, August 19, 2025.
Pashinian said in Washington that his deal with Trump will also bring “very tangible benefits” to Russia and Iran. He claimed afterwards to have dispelled Moscow’s and Tehran’s misgivings about it.
However, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signaled Tehran’s continuing opposition to any U.S. role in the transit corridor after meeting with Pashinian in Yerevan on Tuesday. Pezeshkian warned against any “outsourcing of regional issues” to outside powers
Earlier this year, Overchuk repeatedly warned of severe economic consequences of Armenia’s declared desire to eventually join the European Union. He complained in June that the Armenian government introduced recently EU standards for the certification of imported food products. He said he will formally notify Grigorian that they “contradict the Eurasian Economic Union norms” and could prompt retaliatory measures by Moscow.
Pashinian declared, meanwhile, that Yerevan will eventually have to choose between the EU and the EEU. Still, he reportedly told his Russian counterpart Mikhail Mishustin last month that he still has no plans to pull Armenia out of the Russian-led bloc.