Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met on the sidelines of the 9th European Political Community Summit in Dublin, Ireland, on Thursday. Among other issues, they discussed ‘progress’ in the development of the Trump Route.

Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the US agreed to establish the Trump Route, a planned multi-use infrastructure project intended to connect mainland Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan through Armenian territory, during a summit in Washington in August 2025.

In late October, Armenia’s Parliament ratified a framework agreement with the US on strategic cooperation concerning the Trump Route.

‘The discussions focused on practical steps towards further consolidating peace between the two countries, including the development of transport and transit connectivity, economic and trade relations, border delimitation, and the implementation of confidence-building measures’, the Armenian Prime Minister’s Office said in its readout of Thursday’s meeting. An Azerbaijani readout of the meeting contained similar details.

The sides also noted that a total of 105,000 tonnes of cargo had been transported to Armenia through Azerbaijan since November 2025, when Baku lifted its cargo transfer ban following the Washington summit. The transit of goods to and from Armenia through Azerbaijan was described as a ‘positive development’.

‘The sides also exchanged views on opportunities for further developing economic and trade relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, including the forthcoming interconnection of electricity grids’, the readout said.

In October, delegations from Armenia and Azerbaijan met in the Armenian city of Goris to discuss the construction of power transmission lines as part of the Trump Route project.

A few months ahead, in August, Aliyev said that Azerbaijan could begin supplying Armenia with electricity. Pashinyan responded that Armenia currently had an energy surplus, but that growing demand in the economy could lead Yerevan to import electricity in the future.

The two leaders also ‘emphasised the importance of environmental and transboundary water cooperation and welcomed the establishment of working groups on the management of transboundary rivers’.

The statement did not provide further details about the working groups.

‘The leaders reaffirmed the importance of maintaining positive momentum in the peace process and continuing dialogue aimed at strengthening peace, stability, and prosperity in the region’, the readout concluded.

Separately, also in Dublin, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov ‘spoke briefly’.

A similar interaction took place between Armenian Security Council Secretary Alen Simonyan and Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev.