Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency David Cohen visited Yerevan where he met with Armenian officials on Tuesday.
Cohen and his delegation met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, according to the Armenian leader’s press office.
In a short press statement, Pashinyan’s office said “Armenia-US bilateral, as well as international agenda matters were discussed,” without elaborating.
Cohen and his delegation also met with Armenia’s National Security chief Armen Grigoryan.
“Armenian-US bilateral cooperation as well as regional security issues were discussed at the meeting,” a brief press statement from Grigoryan’s office said.
This is the second high-level CIA visits to Armenia in two years.
CIA Director William Burns paid a surprise visit to Armenia in July 2022 and talks with Pashinyan and Armen Grigoryan. Two months later, Grigoryan visited the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia during a trip to the United States. No details of those talks were made public.
Grigoryan also met with Britain’s foreign intelligence agency chief Richard Moore in London in December 2022. A few days later, Moore flew to Yerevan for talks with Pashinyan. The two men met again in February this year on the sidelines of Munich Security Conference.
The Kremlin had tepid reaction to the earlier meetings with the to Western intelligence agencies.
However, as tensions between Yerevan and Moscow have escalated, Moscow has accused the West — the U.S. and the European Union — of using Armenia to advance its agenda in the South Caucasus. Similarly, Moscow has blamed Pashinyan and his government of “destroying” Russia-Armenian relations by advancing its ties with Western States.
It is unclear whether Burns’ visit to Yerevan was scheduled. It comes a day after it was announced that Iran’s president and foreign minister were killed in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan border.
