YEREVAN, May 26 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan signed a strategic partnership agreement in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Tuesday, less than two weeks before parliamentary elections in the South Caucasus country.
They also signed a framework agreement on critical minerals and another on cooperation on a proposed 43-km (27-mile) transit corridor that would run across southern Armenia and give Azerbaijan a direct route to its exclave of Nakhchevan and in turn to Turkey, Baku’s closest ally.
The meeting, held at Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport during a brief stopover by Rubio, comes days before a June 7 election pitting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party, which is pursuing closer ties with the West, against an array of opposition parties, many of which are pro-Russian.
Ahead of Rubio’s brief visit, the Kremlin said on Monday Armenia could lose the “very attractive” price it pays for Russian gas if it turned away from integration with Russia.
(Reporting by Michael Martina; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
