On June 17, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan had a meeting with Richard Verma, US Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, who arrived in Armenia as part of the first official visit of the delegation of U.S. Mayors and Local representatives.

The interlocutors discussed issues of expansion of the Armenia-U.S. bilateral partnership agenda, as well as regional developments.

Touching upon the Capstone meeting of the Armenia-U.S. Strategic Dialogue held in Yerevan on June 12, Minister Mirzoyan noted: “You might be aware, Mr. Deputy Secretary, we just concluded the second capstone meeting of Strategic dialogue between Armenia and the United States, and this time we not only brought new areas and directions to our cooperation but also made a decision to level up to establish Strategic Partnership which will be another milestone. So we move on the correct path, we have tangible results, and of course, we will discuss much more.”

In response, Richard Verma noted: “The Strategic Partnership is incredibly important to the United States, and we look forward to leaving here with a clear road map on how we can advance in key areas on peace and prosperity, economy, trade, people-to-people ties and continue to bring our cooperation to another level.”

The interlocutors discussed issues of Armenian-American decentralized cooperation, emphasizing the establishment and expansion of cooperation between the regions and cities of Armenia and the states and cities of the USA.

Ararat Mirzoyan and Richard Verma looked into the development of Armenian-American relations in the context of strengthening Armenia’s resilience. The successful implementation of reforms aimed at strengthening democracy and the rule of law in Armenia and the valuable U.S. support in that direction were touched upon.

In the context of regional security issues, Minister Mirzoyan briefed his interlocutor on the efforts aimed at normalizing relations with Azerbaijan, including signing a peace treaty. The issues of economic and transport connectivity and the opportunities provided by the implementation of the "Crossroads of Peace" project developed by the Government of the Republic of Armenia were touched upon.