Overview
- Vice President JD Vance and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a 123 civil nuclear agreement enabling U.S. licensing of nuclear technology, with officials citing up to $5 billion in initial exports and $4 billion in long‑term fuel and maintenance contracts.
- Vance became the first sitting U.S. president or vice president to visit Armenia, then arrived in Baku on Tuesday to meet President Ilham Aliyev and press next steps in the U.S.-brokered normalization.
- Washington is pushing the 43‑kilometre TRIPP corridor across southern Armenia to link Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave, a project framed as an East‑West trade artery that bypasses Russia and Iran.
- Development rights for TRIPP have been granted to the U.S.-based TRIPP Development Company, while Armenia retains sovereignty over borders, customs, taxation and security along the route.
- Human‑rights groups urged Vance to seek the release of Armenians held in Azerbaijan after recent court sentences of former separatist leaders, and small protests in Yerevan highlighted sovereignty concerns about the corridor.