US backs transit corridor linking Armenia, Azerbaijan

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan that the United States will push forward its transit corridor project crossing Armenia to reach Azerbaijan, AFP reports.

Armenia and Azerbaijan signed an agreement in August in Washington under the auspices of U.S. President Donald Trump, aimed at ending their decades-long territorial dispute, CE Report quotes AGERPRES.

The agreement provides for the creation of a transit zone running through Armenia and linking Azerbaijan to its western exclave of Nakhchivan. This corridor, which meets a long-standing demand from authorities in Baku, will be called the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity,” or TRIPP.

A company, 74% owned by the United States, will be established and tasked with building rail and road infrastructure along this strip of land, the State Department said.

The project is expected to facilitate U.S. investment and access to the American market for “critical minerals and rare earths,” according to the State Department’s framework document.

“The TRIPP agreement will truly become a model for the entire world, demonstrating how one can open up to economic activity and prosperity without questioning or in any way compromising sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Rubio said during the meeting.

“This will be good for Armenia, good for the United States, and good for everyone involved,” the secretary of state added, saying the Trump administration will now “work on implementing the agreement.”

Iran has long opposed the corridor, fearing it would cut it off from the Caucasus and bring a foreign presence to its border.

For his part, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that security along the corridor linking Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan will be ensured “by Armenia, not by a third country.”

As reported by CE Report, the territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has mainly focused on Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave at the center of two wars — one following the collapse of the USSR and another in 2020. Azerbaijan ultimately retook it from Armenian separatists after a lightning offensive in 2023.