Director William Burns meets with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on July 15 in Yerevan
After a evasive responses from Armenian and U.S. officials on whether CIA Director William Burns had traveled to Yerevan, Armenia’s government officials reported that he met with high-level officials in Yerevan on Friday and discussed regional security issues, including Yerevan’s efforts to normalize relations with Ankara and Baku.
During a meeting with Armenia’s National Security Chief Armen Grigoryan, who briefed Burns about Armenia’s policy for peace in the region, as well as challenges facing Armenia in the region. Within this context, the issue of normalization of relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan were broached.
Burns also met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Friday and discussed issues related to international and regional security.
CIA Director William Burns meets with Armenia’s National Security Chief Armen Grigoryan
According to Pashinyan’s press service the two also discussed the processes taking place in the South Caucasus and the continue fight against terrorism.
Earlier on Friday, RFE/RL reported that the Armenian and U.S. governments did not deny reports that Burns was making an unannounced visit to Armenia.
Citing unnamed sources, the Russian news agency Sputnik reported that Burns arrived in Yerevan in the morning for unspecified “high-level meetings.” He will spend only several hours in the country, it said without giving other details.
A spokesperson for Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that he has “no information” about the alleged trip.
Other Armenian government agencies refrained from commenting on it. The press office of the government’s Security Council did not answer phone calls throughout the day.
The U.S. Embassy said, for its part, that it has no comment on the Sputnik report. No CIA director has ever visited Armenia before.
According to Tigran Grigoryan, an independent political analyst, U.S. and Russian security officials arrived in Armenia in recent days for confidential talks focusing on the war in Ukraine.
“Based on the scarce information available, one can presume that Yerevan or Armenia was simply chosen as the venue for some secret negotiations with Russia,” Grigoryan said. “According to my information, Russian and American experts arrived in Yerevan for that purpose in recent days. So Burns’s visit could be put in that context.”
Burns, 66, is a former career diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008.
Burns visited Armenia as well as Azerbaijan in 2011 in his capacity as U.S. deputy secretary of state. During that trip, he urged a greater “sense of urgency” for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, saying that “the status quo is not sustainable.”