The United States pledged on May 26 to move forward with Armenia on a planned corridor connecting parts of rival Azerbaijan, during a lightning visit by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio, returning from a four-day trip to India, met his Armenian counterpart during a refueling stop in the former Soviet Republic, which has long been allied with Moscow but has sought closer relations with the West.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been working on a road-and-rail corridor initiative named after him, the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), which would run through Armenia and connect Azerbaijan with its Nakhichevan exclave, cut off from Armenian territory.
Rubio initialed another step in the TRIPP project with the Armenian foreign minister, Ararat Mirzoyan.
“This agreement marks the biggest step to date on making this historic route a reality, on advancing peace, and on increasing prosperity in Armenia and frankly in the region,” Rubio said at a signing ceremony at the Yerevan airport.
The latest document, which was not released publicly, establishes details on a joint venture for the corridor and sets up an engineering survey.
In January, the State Department laid out a framework in which Armenia would give the United States a 74 percent share in a new “TRIPP Development Company” with an explicit promise to benefit U.S. companies.
Rubio also signed agreements in Yerevan on renewing a broad strategic partnership and working together on critical minerals, a key priority for Washington as China dominates the resource vital for modern technologies.
