Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is convinced: without trust in the region, it is impossible to avoid problems and conflicts. Therefore, economic cooperation automatically entails strengthening security.

Rubio-Mirzoyan framework agreement on TRIP bolsters hopes for communication integration between Türkiye and Azerbaijan

The essence of this project boils down to creating a multimodal and unimpeded transit route for goods from Central Asia and Azerbaijan through Armenia’s 43 km Meghri road section into the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and onward to Türkiye and Europe. Control over transit is given to the USA for a period of 99 years (49 50), with the main share package distributed as 74% USA and 26% Armenia for the first 49 years, and 51% USA and 49% Armenia for the subsequent 50 years. At this stage, the USA is attracting the primary investment and financing for the construction of the infrastructure necessary to establish railway transit and an electronic monitoring platform, while Armenia is limited to merely providing its territory.

The framework program launches the practical implementation of the TRIP project and demonstrates to the parties interested in this route (primarily Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Central Asian countries, and Europe) the importance of coordinated actions aimed at strengthening regional security and fulfilling their end to launch the international West-East transit corridor.

In Azerbaijan and Türkiye, this route is commonly referred to as the Zangezur Corridor, and the proposed operating mechanism of TRIP (i.e., multimodality and unimpeded passage) aligns with the logic of a transit corridor. Whether the Armenian side will reap substantial economic dividends from the launch of the Trump Road is difficult to say, as the transit length across formally sovereign Armenian territory is a short segment (only 43 km), and Yerevan’s shareholding stake is minor.

Concessions and transit: Armenia at the crossroads of geopolitical interests

Nikol Pashinyan’s government is ready to make significant concessions, which, according to analysts, reflects that 26% ownership of shares over its own territory is acceptable, consequently limiting the country’s sovereignty.........

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