US and Armenian officials announced in January a preliminary agreement outlining the establishment of an entity, TRIPP Development, that would manage the corridor. The agreement sketched TRIPP Development’s ownership structure but left operational details to be settled at a later date. Since then, there has been lots of positive talk, but little action to get TRIPP Development up and running.

In late October, the Armenian parliament formally approved a bill authorizing the formation of TRIPP Development. Signaling that official Yerevan wants to keep things moving along quickly, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that officials were not waiting for TRIPP Development’s incorporation, and will immediately begin preparatory work on the corridor, which eventually could include a road, railway, power and fiber-optic transmission lines, and energy pipelines.

“After the establishment of TRIPP Development, the results of the work will be transferred to it,” Pashinyan told MPs on November 2.

TRIPP, or the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, was the centerpiece of the provisional peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan, brokered by the US president in August 2025. The corridor will traverse Armenian territory to connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave and is envisioned as a key node in an evolving trans-Caspian trade network.

Launching TRIPP Development is not the only challenge facing the corridor: Russia and Iran both have come out against the route, wary that it will disrupt north-south trade between the two states. Moscow and Tehran are also suspicious of a likely US security presence in the region connected to TRIPP.

Armenia has gone on a diplomatic offensive to assuage the Iranian leadership’s concerns. In Tehran, Armenia’s ambassador to Iran, Grigor Hakobyan, met with a delegation of Iranian MPs on November 2, briefing them “on the latest agreements regarding the TRIPP project.” 

A few days earlier, Iran’s envoy to Armenia, Khalil Shirgholami, met with reporters in Yerevan, telling them that Tehran was keeping an open mind. But, choosing his words carefully, he indicated that Iran would have little tolerance for any American security presence as part of TRIPP’s operations. 

“It is important for us [i.e. Iran] that during the discussion of the TRIPP project or any other matter, the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of Armenia are respected. It is also important that no third party can create a challenge for the strategic relations between Armenia and Iran,” he said. “We will remain committed to this approach during the discussions and further work between the two countries.”

Meanwhile, mutual rancor between Armenia and Russia continues to simmer. The Kremlin has reportedly threatened to cut off crucial gas supplies to Armenia unless Yerevan abandons its efforts to make a geopolitical pivot away from Moscow towards the West.

Pashinyan has remained defiant in the face of growing Russian pressure. Speaking at a forum in Brussels on November 4, he predicted that Armenia would be ready to apply for EU membership no later than 2028.

“For our people, democracy is not a matter of circumstances. It is a strategic choice,” he said. “The European Union is one of the main partners of the Republic of Armenia in the democratic reform agenda implementation.”

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