Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has dismissed claims that the United States has no economic interest in Armenia and is pursuing the TRIPP project primarily to control the Iranian border, describing such assertions as outdated and unfounded. The Prime Minister acknowledged that at present Armenia’s state border is not fully under the complete control of Armenian institutions. “We work very closely with both Russia and China,” the Prime Minister said. Responding directly to the argument that the United States lacks economic interest in Armenia, Pashinyan said such a view ignores U.S. political realities. “How can the United States not have an economic interest?” Pashinyan said.