House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) touched down in Armenia on Saturday for a snap visit amid some of the worst clashes with Azerbaijan in years.
Pelosi announced the “rather spontaneous” trip while in Germany for a summit of parliamentary speakers from G-7 nations on Friday. She will visit Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the capital of Yerevan, along with other government officials to reiterate the United States’s “firm commitment to a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Armenia, and a stable and secure Caucasus region,” Pelosi said in a statement announcing her trip. The House speaker is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Armenia since it gained independence 30 years ago with the breakup of the Soviet Union, her office said.
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The trip comes one month after she led a congressional delegation to Taiwan, sparking fury from China, which claims the Democratic island as its own. The Chinese responded with a series of military drills in the waters surrounding Taiwan, including in areas that Taipei says are part of its territory. That visit was part of a legacy-cementing effort for Pelosi, who is 82 and in danger of losing the Speaker’s gavel for likely the last time in her career after the November midterm elections.
Pelosi is joined on her weekend visit to Armenia by Reps. Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA), both of whom are Armenian Americans. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee and is a longtime co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, was also part of the Armenia delegation.
Speaking to reporters on Friday in Berlin, the California lawmaker said the trip “is all about human rights and the respecting the dignity and worth of every person.”
Armenia and Azerbaijan are neighboring former Soviet states, which have fought for decades over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of Armenian-backed forces since 1994.
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Clashes in the region, which is located on the two nation’s borders, led to about 50 deaths on each side this week, some of the deadliest numbers since a full-blown war there in 2020. Armenia accused Azeri forces of seizing settlements beyond Nagorno-Karabakh, inside Armenia, during the fighting. Azerbaijan didn’t dispute the accusation, instead arguing that it was responding to “provocations” from Armenian forces.
Efforts by Russia, a close ally to both Soviet states, to broker a peace deal have failed. Moscow did, however, successfully get the two countries to agree to a ceasefire on Wednesday. The deal has held as of Saturday, but the situation remains fragile.
