In a short statement, the embassy said Armenian Ambassador Narek Mkrtchian “emphasized the importance of U.S. support for strengthening democratic institutions” in his country when he hosted Riley Barnes, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor.
It said the meeting focused on the planned opening of a U.S.-administered transit corridor through Armenia as well as “hybrid threats, countering disinformation, and a number of issues related to religious freedom.” It did not elaborate on those issues.
“The interlocutors reaffirmed their readiness to deepen cooperation in areas of mutual interest,” added the statement.
The State Department issued no readouts of Barnes’s meeting with Mkrtchian as of Friday.
It was thus not clear whether they touched upon Prime Minister Nikol Pashuinian’s nearly yearlong attempts to depose the supreme head of the Armenia Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin II. Armenian opposition figures and other critics of Pashinian maintain that his campaign, which has been companied by arrests of senior clergymen, violates Armenia’s constitution guaranteeing the church’s separation from the state.
Two Western religious rights groups echoed these claims in February. One of them, the Vienna-based the Forum for Religious Freedom Europe, spoke of “grave threats to freedom of religion or belief” in Armenia. U.S. officials have not publicly commented on Pashinian’s campaign.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance lavished praise on the Armenian premier and endorsed him ahead of Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary elections when he visited Yerevan in February. Vance said Pashinian’s reelection is essential for the launch of the transit arrangement to be named after U.S. President Donald Trump.