Armenia’s Meghri transforms into global hub amid TRIPP connectivity plans, sa

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that the Armenian town of Meghri in the country’s south has transformed into a “regional and global hub” since the agreements on launching the TRIPP project.

“There was a time when just mentioning Meghri would trigger waves of alarm,” Pashinyan said at a campaign event in Yerevan for his Civil Contract party. “But today, Meghri has transformed into a regional, global hub. Today, the world’s top leaders believe that a turning-point event is taking place in Meghri. World leaders communicate with me, asking how they can participate, because they understand that something is happening that has key significance and that it will be of decisive importance for North–South and East–West communications,” Pashinyan said.

He emphasized that the perception of the country’s geographical position has also changed.

“Armenia remains on the same coordinates it has been on for the past hundred years, but our perception has always been that the country’s geographic position is extremely unfavorable. However, the Armenia–EU summit is taking place—the first in history—and the President of the European Commission begins our meeting with the following sentence: Armenia sits on the shortest East–West route,” said Pashinyan, referring to the inaugural Armenia–EU summit, which took place in Yerevan earlier this month.

He said that real estate prices in Meghri have increased by around 50 percent, while in the border village of Kirants in the Tavush region, where delimitation and demarcation have taken place, around 50 new houses are currently being built.

“Today’s Kirants and the Kirants of 2023 are kilometers apart. Kirants is safer and more developed than ever before. There used to be around 100 houses in Kirants; today, around 50 houses are under construction there. In more than 3,400 border communities, houses and new neighborhoods are being built. In various settlements, new districts are emerging with state support,” said Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) is a connectivity project in Armenia envisaged under the U.S.-brokered Armenian–Azerbaijani joint declaration signed in Washington, D.C. The project is expected to unlock strategic economic opportunities, create long-term benefits by promoting infrastructure investment, and enhance regional connectivity.