Opinion: Trump administration very effectively advancing American  interests in South Caucasus, without encountering any obstacles on  part of Armenia

ArmInfo.Americanist Suren Sargsyan presented the key goals of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's short visit to Yerevan.

In his Facebook post, the expert acknowledged that Rubio's visit to Yerevan certainly had several noteworthy features, and, according to  him, it wasn't just that he didn't meet with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

In this vein, he touched on the documents signed during the visit.

Regarding the document on strategic minerals, Sargsyan noted that the  US and China are in serious competition for mineral resources,  especially critical ones. "Washington's main goals in this area are  to reduce dependence on Chinese supplies while simultaneously  establishing influence in the mining sector in resource-rich  countries. To this end, the United States has signed similar  agreements with Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of the  Congo, Australia, Kazakhstan, and dozens of other countries.   Incidentally, one of the justifications for US ambitions regarding  Greenland is its mineral wealth, which the Trump administration has  repeatedly mentioned," the Americanist noted.

He then touched on the charter on strategic cooperation, noting that  from a strategic relations perspective, it is important to understand  that the United States classifies diplomatic relations with various  countries as follows: allied relations (United Kingdom, Canada),  strategic partnership (Vietnam, Kazakhstan), comprehensive strategic  partnership (India), comprehensive partnership (Indonesia,  Singapore), major non- NATO ally (Israel, Australia), NATO allies,  and other friendly countries.

"In this context, it can be said that Armenia has somewhat raised the  level of its relations, but, naturally, it cannot speak of allied  relations," he noted.  Regarding the "Trump Route for International  Cooperation and Prosperity" project, Sarkissian noted that the TRIPP  factor is important for understanding the current US approach to the  South Caucasus. "The US has two main priorities in the region:  implementing the TRIPP project and increasing pressure on Iran. An  important point regarding TRIPP is often overlooked by the public. It  is an important element of US regional strategy, but not the only  one. Its goal is to export Central Asian energy resources to Europe  through the South Caucasus and Turkey, bypassing China, Russia, and  Iran. In fact, China is striving for, and has already partially  achieved, greater influence over Central Asian energy resources. It  needs reliable export routes to Europe, which could be realized  within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. The United  States, in turn, is seeking to create difficulties for China by  limiting its export opportunities using various tools, from sanctions  to promoting its own regional projects," he noted.

In other words, he said, while China largely controls Central Asia's  energy resources, the United States, driven by competitive logic, is  attempting to control potential transit corridors to Europe. "One of  the main obstacles to exports from Central Asia to Europe was that  delivering resources to Turkey via the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan  required transit through Iran (or more precisely, Georgia), which was  not in Washington's interests. In the case of TRIPP, this corridor is  provided through Armenia, bypassing Iran, simultaneously bypassing  Russia and creating additional complications for China by limiting  access to alternative logistics routes. In other words, the Trump  administration is very effectively promoting American interests in  the South Caucasus, and the Armenian authorities, naturally, are not  creating any obstacles for the United States in the face of this  global competition and, accordingly, enjoy Washington's support,"  Sargsyan concluded.