Trump's peace route: Geopolitics in the South Caucasus
A declaration signed on August 8 in Washington by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and US President Donald Trump provides for the creation of a transport corridor through Armenian territory.
This corridor would connect Azerbaijan with its exclave, Nakhchivan, which is surrounded by Armenia, Turkey, and Iran. According to experts, the TRIPP project (Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity) has the potential to significantly alter the geopolitical landscape in the South Caucasus, as reported by Deutsche Welle.
In addition, the TRIPP project involves the construction of railways, highways, oil and gas pipelines, and the development of communications infrastructure, which is expected to spur economic growth in the region. However, the issue of control over key strategic assets remains unresolved, and not all Armenians support the idea of a long-term foreign presence on their country's territory, DW's correspondent reports. Many opposition politicians are concerned about ceding a portion of their country's territory to foreign control, even in spite of assurances that they would retain sovereignty.
Some critics of the project point out that the US will receive exclusive rights to operate the infrastructure for a period of up to 99 years, which would effectively lead to Yerevan losing control over important strategic communications. Moreover, critics emphasize that issues concerning the rights of Armenians who were forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023 and the fate of Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijani prisons were left unaddressed in both the declaration and the briefing with Trump, Pashinyan, and Aliyev, DW notes.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
