foto: The White House/Azerbaijani President Ilha Aliyev; US President Donald Trump; Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan
A U.S.-brokered route across Armenia — TRIPP — could unlock trade, energy, and data links — and it’s already raising environmental impact questions in Syunik.
Trump pushed through the TRIPP corridor across Armenia. It will connect Turkey with Azerbaijan and Central Asia, strengthen the United States and weaken the influence of Russia and the EU in the South Caucasus.
Since 1918, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been entangled in a series of territorial disputes that the existence of the USSR only muted. Even before its collapse, the two countries fought several wars and carried out ethnic cleansing, primarily over the Armenian-populated autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The latest war ended in 2023 with the dismantling of the autonomous entity of Nagorno-Karabakh and the flight and displacement of the Armenian population. Military success encouraged Azerbaijan to exert further pressure on Armenia to allow a 32-kilometre corridor across its territory between Azerbaijan and its exclave of Nakhchivan. The corridor would enable the movement of people and goods between Turkey and Azerbaijan and further into Central Asia without the need to transit Iran or Russia.
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TRIPP: Trump’s Corridor Will Link the South Caucasus and Strengthen the United States
The corridor will not be extraterritorial and will not be called a corridor, but the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP). The White House states that the route will be operated in accordance with Armenian law and the United States will lease the land to a newly established infrastructure and management consortium for up to 99 years, which guarantees investment certainty. The route is supposed to facilitate logistics, transport, and the transmission of energy (gas, oil, electricity) and a data cable.
While standard diplomatic thinking in transport and energy interconnections is based on the priority of contractually securing "security guarantees" with sanction mechanisms, U.S. President creates a new situation out of the box by ensuring the corridor will allegedly operate on an open-access basis on commercial principles, essentially similar to how undersea communication cables or the Panama or Suez canals function.
Trump secured for the United States and American companies exclusive rights to develop the corridor and to lease all necessary lands to a consortium of private companies for construction and management. Ownership rights to the land are not transferred to U.S. entities. The consortium will be established under Armenian law, and Armenia and the United States will be represented on its supervisory and management bodies. In line with its ordoliberal economic policy, the U.S. government will not invest any public money. Nine companies (including three operators headquartered in the United States) have already expressed interest in participating in the project. As the Caucasus gas pipeline for natural gas will link Azerbaijan and Turkey, Europe may also benefit indirectly from this project, as it will be able to contract gas from Azerbaijan.
‘Open Access’ or 99-Year Lock-In?
Nevertheless, alongside the commercial and geopolitical framing, questions about environmental impact have emerged regarding a new right-of-way through a remote, mountainous region. Environmental groups and local observers argue that the planned TRIPP — which grants the U.S. exclusive development rights for up to 99 years and allows subleasing to a private consortium — amounts to de facto control over Syunik’s corridor. Environmental groups say that without a public, independent EIA, the project risks fragmenting habitats; triggering landslides after blasting; contaminating aquifers; and blanketing villages with dust and diesel.
Critics frame the model as "infrastructure first, accountability later," asking who bears liability for pipeline leaks or construction damage, and what enforceable safeguards exist (wildlife crossings, spill-response plans, seismic-risk modelling). Some might argue that, absent informed community consent and transparent oversight, "open access" resembles a 99-year commercial lock-in rather than a peace corridor.
Trump Brokered a Breakthrough Agreement Between Armenia and Azerbaijan
The signing of the agreements took place on 8 August 2025 directly at the White House, in the presence of the U.S. President. The agreements form a whole and do not allow either Armenia or Azerbaijan to backtrack before they mutually conclude a bilateral peace treaty. "It is a day that the people of Azerbaijan will remember with a sense of pride and gratitude towards President Trump... Within a few months he managed to end conflicts in Asia, Africa and now also in the South Caucasus—something we failed to achieve for more than 30 years... We will turn the page on deadlock, confrontation and bloodshed and ensure our children a bright and safe future," said Azerbaijani President Aliyev.
"Today, we have achieved a significant milestone in relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We will lay the foundations for a better future than we had in the past. This breakthrough simply would not have been possible without the personal involvement of President Trump and his determination to achieve peace," said Prime Minister Pashinyan.
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The Agreement Weakens Russia and the EU in the Region and Opens Armenia’s Path to the West
The agreement greatly limits Russia’s influence in the South Caucasus and can, to a large extent, standardise future Russian behaviour. After the military capture of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan, Armenia no longer relies unilaterally on Russia as the patron of its security, even though Russian military bases remain on its territory under treaties. The European Union is also completely out of the picture, having tried unsuccessfully since the 1990s to moderate the peace process. Only the observer regime and ceasefire monitoring under the control of the Organization for Security and Co-operation, i.e., the OSCE Minsk Group, functioned.
The corridor agreement was preceded by Trump’s condition that Armenia and Azerbaijan jointly commit to end any activity in the Minsk Group. This document was signed by Foreign Ministers Mirzoyan and Bayramov. Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to participate in the Minsk Group as parties, not as initiators, which ends with the signature and also ends the EU’s ability to influence developments in any way.
Russia’s withdrawal from Syria, similar to its lack of interest not only in Armenia but across the entire South Caucasus, is an evident consequence of the priorities Moscow has in Ukraine and of what it seeks to achieve in upcoming talks with the United States.