JD Vance heads to Caucasus — What Washington hopes to achieve

JD Vance heads to Caucasus — What Washington hopes to achieve

US Vice President J.D. Vance’s upcoming visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan is notable not only for where he is going, but for the fact that he is going at all. In a year when the Trump administration has sharply limited overseas travel in favor of domestic priorities ahead of the November midterm elections, Vance’s decision to include the South Caucasus in his itinerary marks a deliberate exception. Officially, the trip follows his attendance at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. Politically, it signals that Washington sees unfinished business, and rising risk, in a region it helped reshape only months ago.