Yerevan (AFP) – The United States pledged Tuesday to move forward with Armenia on a planned corridor connecting parts of rival Azerbaijan, during a lightning visit by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio, returning from a four-day trip to India, met his Armenian counterpart during a refuelling stop in the former Soviet republic, which has long been allied with Moscow but has sought closer relations with the West.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has been working on a road-and-rail corridor initiative named after him — the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) — that would run through Armenia and connect Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave, cut off from Armenian territory. Rubio said he initialled another step in the TRIPP project with the Armenian foreign minister, Ararat Mirzoyan.
“This agreement marks the biggest step to date on making this historic route a reality, on advancing peace, and on increasing prosperity in Armenia and frankly in the region,” Rubio said at a signing ceremony at the Yerevan airport. The text of the agreement was not immediately released and it was unclear what new steps the two countries would take.
In January, the State Department laid out a framework in which Armenia would give the United States a 74 percent share in a new “TRIPP Development Company” with an explicit promise to benefit US companies. Armenia has been a historic ally of Russia, but looked on with anger after Moscow failed to prevent Azerbaijan from carrying out a lightning offensive in 2023 that took back the breakaway region of Karabakh.
Since then, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government has frozen Armenia’s membership in the Russian-led CSTO military alliance and has expressed an interest in joining the European Union, to the Kremlin’s displeasure. Armenia has also walked a tightrope while the United States and Israel waged war on neighbouring Iran, which has long had cordial relations with Yerevan. Armenia has reassured Iran that the TRIPP corridor would remain under its sovereignty and not that of the United States.
Rubio also signed agreements in Yerevan on renewing a broad strategic partnership and working together on critical minerals, a key priority for Washington as China dominates the resource vital for modern technologies. “We are laying the groundwork for the sort of economic engagement that allows Armenians to make money and find prosperity and Americans to do the same and to do it together, which is one of the strongest ways to bind nations with one another,” Rubio said. But he said they were “always doing it in a way that respects your sovereignty as a nation.”
Mirzoyan said he hoped to see the agreements implemented on the ground and called them “truly beneficial for the Republic of Armenia.” High-level US visits have been rare to Armenia, but Vice President JD Vance visited both Armenia and Azerbaijan in February as part of a peace push. Vance’s trip was marred after he deleted a social media post in which he mourned the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as “genocide.” Former president Joe Biden recognised the killings as genocide, a position long sought by Armenia. Trump has backtracked by not using the terminology, which is opposed by Turkey.
© 2024 AFP
