Yerevan Says Won’t Cede More Stakes In ‘Trump Route’ Through Armenia

Under a U.S.-Armenian agreement signed in June, the U.S. government will own 74 percent of the company that will have “exclusive land use rights, development rights, related permissions, and all other rights” necessary for the establishment of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP). The Armenian government is to own the remaining 26 percent of the TRIPP Development Company (TDC)

A Kyrgyz media outlet reported last month that Pashinian proposed to Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev that Kazakhstan and neighboring Kyrgyzstan invest in the project and each take 5 percent stakes in the company in return. It did not cite any sources of the information.

Pashinian did not explicitly deny the report when he spoke to journalists on August 27. His office afterwards forwarded a relevant written question from RFE/RL’s Armenian Service to the Foreign Ministry. The ministry spokeswoman, Ani Badalian, answered it in writing on Thursday.

Citing a U.S.-Armenian agreement on the TRIPP, Badalian said: “A format for the transfer of a stake [in the TDC] in exchange for investments is neither provided for nor under consideration.”

Tokayev and Pashinian spoke by phone on August 24. An Armenian government statement said they discussed “opportunities for cooperation in the implementation of regional transport projects.” It did not give any details. Pashinian indicated three days later that the TRIPP was on the agenda of their conversation.

“Now different countries are showing interest [in the TRIPP,] and naturally, we welcome the interest shown by them,” he said without elaborating.

Earlier in August, a senior adviser to U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff visited Yerevan to discuss with Pashinian and other Armenian officials practical modalities of the TRIPP. The transit route connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave and Turkey would run along Armenia’s border with Iran. Tehran remains opposed to the planned arrangement, fearing that it could lead to U.S. security presence along the border and undermine Armenian control of it.