YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reported major progress towards opening a US-administered transit corridor for Azerbaijan through Armenia and reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to deepen US-Armenian relations during an hour-long visit to Yerevan on Tuesday, May 26.
Rubio and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan initiated a bilateral agreement on “strategic cooperation” regarding the planned Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) following short talks at Yerevan’s Zvartnots international airport.
The agreement reaffirms the key terms of a joint “implementation framework” for the TRIPP signed by the two men in January. Those include the creation of a joint US-Armenian venture that will manage for at least 49 years a railway, a road, energy supply lines and other infrastructure to be built along the Armenian-Iranian border to connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave.
The US government will own 74 percent of the TRIPP Development Company (TDC). The Armenian side is to grant the company “exclusive land use rights, development rights, related permissions, and all other rights” necessary for the transit arrangement.
“Armenia agrees that the TDC shall be empowered to select third parties to support each TRIPP Project established by the SPVs (TDC subsidiaries), including the third parties serving as the concessionaire, sponsors, operators, contractors, and EPC (engineering procurement and construction) providers of such TRIPP Project,” reads the agreement publicized by the Armenian Foreign Ministry.
“This agreement marks the biggest step to date on making this historic route a reality, on advancing peace, on increasing prosperity in Armenia and frankly in the region,” said Rubio, who spent less than an hour at the Yerevan airport on his way back from a visit to India.
