Armenia, Turkey discussing reconstruction, commissioning of transborder railway – Armenian Foreign Ministry
YEREVAN. April 28 (Interfax) – Armenian and Turkish representatives have held a meeting of the working group on the resumption of bilateral rail service, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“Based on the agreements reached within the Armenia-Turkey normalization process, the meeting of the Armenia-Turkey joint working group on rehabilitation and operationalization of the Gyumri-Kars railway was held in Kars on April 28, 2026,” the statement said.
The sides stressed the importance of commissioning the Gyumri-Kars railway as soon as possible in the context of expanding transport infrastructure in the region, it said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. embassy to Armenia has described the working group meeting as “historic progress toward a peaceful and prosperous South Caucasus.”
“Restoring this critical link between Armenia and Turkey is an important step in unlocking regional connectivity and solidifying regional stability. The August 8 Washington summit hosted by President Trump set the stage for such momentous developments. U.S. embassy in Yerevan welcomes these concrete steps toward reopening economic and people-to-people links between Armenia and Turkey,” the embassy said.
There are no diplomatic relations between Ankara and Yerevan, and the bilateral border has been closed since 1993 at Ankara’s initiative. Special representatives of Yerevan and Ankara have been holding negotiations since 2022 in order to reopen the border and to normalize relations. Flights between the two countries are available.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, U.S. President Donald Trump and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a declaration in August 2025, saying that Yerevan will be working together with Washington and certain third countries on the framework of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) project on Armenian territory. The project envisages the construction of road, rail and oil-and-gas infrastructure. The TRIPP will connect the main part of Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic via Armenia along a 42-kilometer road, and then farther on to Turkey.
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