YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan touted the Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by the United States when he attended a summit of the leaders of Russia and several other ex-Soviet states in Tajikistan on Friday, October 10.
Pashinyan again claimed that the agreements reached by him and Azerbaijani President Ilham mean that “peace has been established between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
“Following the Peace Summit in Washington on August 8, 2018, initiated by President Trump, we adopted a declaration with President Aliyev which states that Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize the need to chart a path to a bright future not predetermined by past conflicts in accordance with the UN Charter and the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration,” he said.
The declaration also calls for a US-administered corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia. It is due to be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP). Aliyev and Pashinyan have offered different interpretations of the transit arrangement and its implications.
“The TRIPP project opens up new export and import opportunities for the [Commonwealth of Independent States] countries as well,” Pashinyan told Russian President Vladimir Putin and other CIS heads of state.
Although the TRIPP deal is seen by analysts as another blow to Russian presence in Armenia, Russia’s public reaction to it has been cautious. Moscow has said that it must not be at odds with Armenia’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russian-led trade bloc, and the presence of Russian border guards along the Armenian-Iranian border.
