On January 14, a Strategic Partnership Commission Charter was signed between the Government of the United States and the Government of Armenia. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed the document.

Words attributed to Anthony Blinken that he did not actually say are circulating in Armenian and Azerbaijani media. Outlets such as Haykakan Zhamanak, 24news.am, infoport.am, alphanews.am, and apa.az, along with various Telegram channels, have reported claims that he stated a special team of U.S. border security officers would travel to Armenia to conduct joint border security operations.

Public Television also misrepresented Blinken’s speech with simultaneous interpretation. According to that translation, he stated: “Next week, a special border security team will travel to Armenia to conduct joint border security operations.”

Several media outlets have published a Facebook post by former National Assembly member Arman Abovyan, stating that the United States will send a special team to Armenia to address border security issues next week. According to Abovyan, this indicates that U.S. special services will officially operate along the border of Armenia. This post by the former deputy of the Prosperous Armenia Party has been shared by news outlets such as 168.am, lurer.com, mamul.am and yerevan.today.

In fact, however, the U.S. Secretary of State did not speak of joint border security efforts. His speech focused on developing border security capabilities among Armenian partners, citing the Armenian-American military exercise “Partner Eagle” as an example. Furthermore, he did not specify that this exercise would take place next week; instead, he stated, “Next month, in the coming weeks.”

The direct quote from Blinken is as follows:

“Next month, in the coming weeks, we will have a Customs and Border Patrol team travel to Armenia to work with their Armenian counterparts on border security capacity building, strengthening security cooperation, enhancing Armenia’s peacekeeping capabilities through exercises like Eagle Partner. “