Nancy Pelosi in Armenia after clashes with Azerbaijan

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi arrived in Armenia on September 17, a visit announced the day before when this country has just been confronted with violent clashes on its border with Azerbaijan.

Nancy Pelosi, who is the most senior US official to visit Yerevan since the small Caucasian country gained independence in 1991, called her visit "

,” in a statement.

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This three-day visit “

,” the Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Alen Simonyan, told reporters before his arrival.

Friction between the influence of Turkey and Russia

The visit of the American official comes at a time when the region, which is strategic in particular for the transport of hydrocarbons from the Caspian Sea, is plagued by friction between the influence of Turkey, which supports Azerbaijan, and that of Russia. , theoretically guarantor of the security of Armenia where it has a military base, but which is very busy in Ukraine.

The West is present in the peace process within the framework of the Minsk group of the OSCE.

An unprecedented escalation

More than 200 people have died in recent fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops, with both sides blaming each other.

These clashes erupted on Tuesday and ended in international mediation on Thursday night.

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It is an escalation not seen since 2020 threatening to torpedo a fragile peace process between the two rival Caucasian countries, which fought two wars - in 2020 and in the 1990s - for the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, enclave populated by Armenians in Azerbaijan.

Nancy Pelosi had been at the center of geopolitical tensions between China and the United States in August, when she traveled to Taiwan in defiance of warnings from Beijing which claims the island.