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Since 1991 and the independence of the Republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia from the USSR, the United States has led an active—although often discreet—foreign policy in the South Caucasus. This region appears to be of relative strategic importance, primarily because it is located at the crossroads of Russia, Iran, and Turkey, and because Azerbaijan is an oil- and gas-rich country. Although US officials have never officially acknowledged it, the goal of the US presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama alike has been to penetrate the South Caucasus from a geopolitical point of view, in order to gain influence there. The United States has therefore succeeded in obtaining reliable geopolitical levers in the region, although it has not completely supplanted its regional competitors, primarily Russia. The most notable elements of this policy of penetration, whose major characteristic is its continuity from the early 1990s onward, have been fivefold: the financial assistance it has provided every year, particularly to Armenia and Georgia; the support for democratic processes—although somewhat ambivalent; the military and security cooperation with the three South Caucasian republics; the energy policy it has implemented in the region; and the diplomatic efforts it has made to solve regional conflicts.