YEREVAN. – Armenia continues to remain on the American agenda because of the Armenian Diaspora in U.S., senior fellow at the Atlantic Council Sabine Freizer said.

The United States is not exerting a lot of influence in the South Caucasus, Freizer said in response to the Armenian News-NEWS.am question about the role and aims of U.S. in this region and whether the role changed after Armenia's joining the Eurasian Economic Union.

“It is mainly been interested in the region as a transit point to Central Asia/Afghanistan, for energy to travel to the EU, and to control trafficking of all forms. It has largely handed the lead over to the EU. The US is not implementing any policies of comparable ambition with the Eastern Partnership in the South Caucasus,” Freizer said.

“What probably disappointed most EU policy makers most about Armenia’s decision to drop its efforts to sign an EU Association Agreement (AA) and instead join the Eurasia Economic Union was the way the decision was made apparently overnight. Of course there were signs that Yerevan needed to take into consideration Russian interests before but the sudden volte face when the AA was about to be signed undermined the Armenian side’s position as trustworthy negotiators.”