“The Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) remains a top priority for the United States, with the potential to unleash peace and prosperity in the South Caucasus region and beyond,” a department spokesperson told the Armenpress news agency late on Thursday. “The Trump Administration remains committed to making TRIPP a reality.”
“It will allow unimpeded international and intrastate connectivity in the region, expanding opportunities for increased economic growth and prosperity,” the official said.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan similarly insisted on Friday that despite “not-so-favorable processes taking place in the region” Washington and Yerevan keep working together on the issue.
“We are in the process of working out an intergovernmental [U.S.-Armenian] agreement,” he told reporters. “We are constantly exchanging ideas and positions on individual issues with representatives of the American administration. We hope to enter the next, construction phase as soon as possible.”
The TRIPP is to connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s strategic Syunik region bordering Iran. According to a joint U.S.-Armenian “implementation framework” signed in January, a special company controlled by the U.S. government will build a railway, a road, energy supply lines and other infrastructure along the Armenian-Iranian border and manage them for at least 49 years. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said late last year that work on that infrastructure will start this summer.
Pashinian said on March 12, however, that it will likely be delayed by the ongoing war between Iran and the U.S. and Israel. He said the TRIPP is “not a priority for the U.S. administration today.”
Iranian officials spoke out against the transit arrangement in the months leading up to the war. They feared that it could undermine Armenian control of the border and lead to U.S. security presence there. Some observers believe that Tehran will now be even more opposed to the transit arrangement.