Not so much “Middle Corridor”. Americans are not sitting idle in the Caucasus

Alyathe The representative office of the Caspian Policy Center in Washington can start operating in the port, and the TRIPP corporate fund was headed by one of the sponsors of Trump’s election campaign.

Speaking at the IV held in Shushi on July 13 in the media forum՝ President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to Donald Trump in the background of another exchange of blows between the USA and Iran called a peace-loving man who «establishes peace in many corners of the world. In his own words, he achieved peace by settling eight conflicts. This is the whole essence of his character. Such is his vision and such is his policy.”  In the South Caucasus, according to the leader of Azerbaijan, “n:President Trump and: his team became involved in the process, creating the conditions in which peace became possible. They fully understood our concerns regarding the peace process.

We clearly realized the need to create Zangezur corridor, which will connect Azerbaijan to its exclave Nakhichevan. They worked very effectively to convince Armenia that it also needs this peace”, as a result of which “a historic meeting took place at the White House, during which the Prime Minister of Armenia, President Trump and I signed a joint declaration, and in the presence of President Trump, the foreign ministers of the two countries initialed the peace agreement”.

Earlier, on July 7, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Jeihun Bayramov had spoken With Senator Steve Daines, member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee visiting the Caspian coast: During the meeting, “opinions were exchanged on the current state and development prospects of the strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and the USA, the political and economic cooperation agenda, energy security, regional relations projects, as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest.”

The interlocutors discussed “Azerbaijan’s growing role as a reliable partner in the fields of energy security, transport and logistics and exchanged ideas on the initiatives for the development of the Middle Corridor (China-Central Asia-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey – here and now) and East-West transport routes”.

Highlighted՝ Thanks to the strengthening of East-West connections through the Caspian Sea, the development of the middle corridor, as well as the Alyat International Seaport (south of Baku) and the logistics and industrial infrastructure created around it, Azerbaijan has turned into one of the most important transport and trade hubs in Eurasia.»:

During the meeting, the US delegation was provided with detailed information on the economic regions of Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur (parts of the administrative territorial division of the country, approved by Aliyev’s decree of July 7, 2021) of the large-scale rehabilitation and reconstruction works carried out in the territories, “as well as the opportunities that the opening of transport and communication lines in the region opens for regional cooperation and economic integration”։

“We continue to work with the Government of Azerbaijan on the priority areas identified in the Strategic Partnership Charter (signed in Washington on February 10, 2026), including regional ties, economic investment, energy, security cooperation and artificial intelligence,” on July 10 in Baku. announced The official representative of the US State Department.

The above The charter complements the “Memorandum of Understanding on Rare Minerals and Rare Earths” signed between the US and Azerbaijan during Baku Energy Week in early June, which covers cooperation in mining, processing and exploration.

In addition, Caleb Orr, Assistant Secretary of State for Economy, Energy and Business, also co-chaired the first Azerbaijani-American economic dialogue held at the beginning of June, within the framework of which “cooperation agreements were signed with the Azerbaijani government, as well as trade agreements totaling about 8 billion dollars”, and under the leadership of the Cyber ​​and Digital Policy Bureau of the US State Department, it was announced to hold an “artificial intelligence week” in Azerbaijan.

With regard to rare earth minerals, their joint exploration and exploitation is taken into account on the basis of the concession / lease agreements being prepared in the Nakhichevan region, in northwestern Azerbaijan and in the so-called “eastern Zangezur” (in the regions between the former Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the border with Armenia).

It is no less important that by the end of 2026, if we believe unofficial information, it is planned to open a branch of the Caspian Policy Center (CPC), a research organization coordinated by the State Department, with its headquarters in Washington and operating for almost 20 years, in the Caspian port of Alyat. Behind the announced goals of studying economic, political, energy and security issues in the Caspian region, holding various forums, expert dialogue, etc., there is no doubt that a much wider range of specific issues is hidden. For example, during the recent Trans-Caspian conference held in Washington were mentioned US goals in the region.  According to CPC CEO Efgan Nifty, over the past 10 years, “the role of the Middle Corridor has strengthened, becoming Eurasia’s most viable route to world markets.”

A vivid example of the integration and strengthening of the route is “On November 16, 2025, Azerbaijan joined the format of consultative meetings of the heads of Central Asian countries as a full participant, and the formation of the C6 format. this is the growing recognition that energy policy, economic corridors and security dynamics are “increasingly uniting Central Asia and the South Caucasus into one strategic space”.

In turn, Arie Lightstone, a senior adviser to Trump’s “peace council”, and several other participants of the conference noted that the head of the White House and his inner circle view the region “not as a system of bilateral relations, but as a consistent strategic partnership.” Accordingly, after the signing of the peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Washington (August 2025), the political-economic interest in the Middle Corridor increased even more, with which the representatives of the former USSR countries and Turkey completely agreed.

Lightstone also focused on the fact that the US will rapidly increase investments in strategic projects in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The main theme of the conference was specified by the head of the State Department’s special envoy for “peaceful missions” (there is such a thing), Vinay Chawla, clarifying that the middle corridor is “not an alternative to other corridors”, but a comprehensive political-economic project. “our desire is to ensure the abundance of energy resources, to cover as much of the regional market as possible”, i.e. Transcaucasia and Central Asia.

Republican Senator Steve Daines was quite frank at the conference, emphasizing that in 2024-25, visiting Central Asian countries, Baku and Yerevan, “we found a common language. I was amazed by the tone of the heads of state, their mood”, moreover, by “their compliance with the values ​​of the United States”, by their sincere desire to “deepen relations with the United States”.  Especially, according to S. According to Danes, it refers to the development of transit corridors, extraction of rare resources, digital technologies.

Meanwhile, together with the TRIPP Development Company, which is intended for the development of transport, energy and digital infrastructures in the Syunik Marz of Armenia, became famous on the creation of another fund, TRIPP Enterprise Fund, through which various projects in the Caucasus and Central Asia will be financed, which, as we see, is significantly wider than the supposed Armenian section of the “Trump Road”. The initial volume of funds of this office is about 200 million dollars, with the prospect of doubling.

The origin of the funds has not yet been disclosed. The TRIPP Enterprise Fund will lead Konstantin Sokolov, a Leningrad-born investor with 20 years of experience in Chicago and closely integrated into global business, whose structures directly or indirectly own several telecommunications companies in Armenia, such as Viva Armenia. Sokolov is known for his consistent support for President Trump: inclusive financial support, so its designation has not only a purely commercial, but also a political component.

The creation of the TRIPP corporate fund is another evidence of America’s desire to promote the development of the strategic corridor connecting Western Asia with Europe, writes the British The Guardian.

by the way the projects of the foundation are not yet known (as well as the charter, the rules for granting grants, etc.), so the viability of the new structure is still in question.  It is assumed that in the event of failure of Trump and his supporters in the November re-elections of the Congress, the names of individual institutions or individuals may change, but the general vector of stable interest in the states of the post-Soviet South will remain unchanged.

Dmitry: Nefiodov

fondsk.ru

Translation by Zhanna Avetisyan

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