According to an official readout of the talks cited by Azerbaijani news agencies, the two men focused on the planned creation of a U.S.-run transit corridor that will connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia.
Bayramov briefed Aryeh Lightstone on the ongoing construction of Azerbaijani roads, railway and other infrastructure that should link up to the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP). He also “presented Azerbaijan’s position to his attention.” No other details of the discussion were reported.
Lightstone visited Yerevan and met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in early August. He said during the trip that the transit arrangement will strengthen peace between the two South Caucasus states.
A U.S.-Armenian agreement signed in early June calls for the creation of a joint venture that will manage for at least 49 years a railway, a road, energy supply lines and other infrastructure to be built along the corridor. The U.S. government will own 74 percent of the TRIPP Development Company (TDC).
Bayramov and Mirzoyan were among senior regional officials who gathered in New York late last month to discuss the next steps for the TRIPP’s implementation. Speaking during the event held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Witkoff stressed the geopolitical and economic significance of the project.
Pashinian said it will have a “historic significance” for Armenia when he addressed the UN assembly on the same day. His domestic political opponents say the transit corridor, which is due to run along Armenia’s border with Iran, could undermine Armenian control over Syunik and antagonize Tehran.
Iranian leaders have repeatedly voiced serious concern over it. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated them during talks with Mirzoyan held in Tehran on Monday. In a clear reference to the United States, Araghchi said “extra-regional forces” cannot bring peace to the South Caucasus. Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf was similarly reported to tell Mirzoyan that the region “must not become an arena for geopolitical rivalry among foreign powers.”