Armenia will need third-party partners during the construction phase of the TRIPP project, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said at a joint press conference with Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna.
He referred to a U.S. State Department statement that the Trump Route project remains among its top priorities, noting that Armenia is working with the United States and agreed third countries to implement the initiative, Sputnik Armenia reports.
“We hope to move to the next, construction phase as soon as possible. This is where we will need third partners. Of course, the agreement will be bilateral between Armenia and the U.S., but we will need partners both during construction and, most likely, during the system management phase,” Mirzoyan said.
He added that bilateral work between Armenia and the United States on the TRIPP project is ongoing actively, and the process is currently at the stage of drafting documents and agreeing on an intergovernmental agreement.
Mirzoyan noted that although the project is bilateral in nature, it serves the interests of many countries, from China to Portugal.
“This project is not on another planet. One end must connect to Azerbaijan, and the other end reach Nakhchivan, while its logical continuation is Armenia’s railway network toward Turkey and Central Asian countries,” the Armenian foreign minister said.
He also stressed that countries in the Middle East are interested in the TRIPP project.
Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a seven-point joint declaration in Washington on August 8, envisaging the creation of a strategic route through the south of Armenia (Syunik) to be titled Trump Route. TRIPP would secure communication between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan. Also, Foreign Ministers Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov pre-signed an agreement on peace and interstate relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the presence of the countries’ leaders and the United States. On September 11, Pashinyan stated that Armenia had not leased land for 99 years to the U.S. side but had granted development rights.
