Armenia says it will stage joint military exercise with US next week

Armenia said on Wednesday it would host a joint military exercise with the United States next week, a development likely to irritate Russia.

The Armenian Defence Ministry said the purpose of the Sept. 11-20 "Eagle Partner 2023" exercise was to prepare its forces to take part in international peacekeeping missions. It did not say how many U.S. and Armenian personnel would be involved.

Russia has a military base in Armenia and sees itself as the pre-eminent power in the South Caucasus region, which until 1991 was part of the Soviet Union.

It maintains a peacekeeping force in the region to uphold an agreement that ended a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020, the second they have fought since the Soviet collapse.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a weekend interview with an Italian newspaper that Russia had failed to protect Armenia against what he called continuing aggression from Azerbaijan. He suggested that Russia's war in Ukraine meant it was unable to meet all Armenia's security needs.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday he disagreed with Pashinyan's remarks.

"Russia is an absolutely integral part of this region," he said. "Russia plays a consistent, very important role in stabilising the situation in this region ... and we will continue to play this role."