“The signing of the Charter on Strategic Partnership between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the United States of America, during Vice President JD Vance’s high-level visit to the Caucasus region, is very important,” Paolo von Schirah, President of the Global Policy Institute and Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Bay Atlantic University in Washington, D.C., told AZERTAC.

According to him, this agreement includes many important points that have to do with cooperation at multiple levels in energy, defense, geopolitical issues, counterterrorism, and communications, “but also we’re talking about investments, probably American investments in high technology, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence.”

“This is very important also because it rebalances a situation in which America already has a similar—not the same, but a similar—agreement with Armenia. And that would appear to be imbalanced. So, Armenia has an agreement with America and Azerbaijan does not. So that rebalances things. That will eventually lead to the construction of the Zangezur road and rail corridor that will connect, in a reliable way, Azerbaijan proper with the region to its west, Nakhchivan. So this is really important. Clearly, it is important for Azerbaijan. But it is also important for Armenia in the sense that this will be done under the auspices of the President of the United States, which provides some kind of security reassurance,” the expert noted.

“Once this corridor has been built, we should not lose sight of the fact that this will be a critical piece of a much larger project—the Middle Corridor—which will link the eastern Mediterranean, Türkiye, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, and beyond. So this is potentially a very, very important channel for trade, business, and investments, linking Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Central Asia,” he added.