Washington, November 8. The United States, Azerbaijan and Armenia have launched trilateral technical planning groups for the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), a multimodal transit corridor, according to a joint statement by the three countries on the US State Department website.
The groups were launched by Brendan Hanrahan, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Vahan Kostanyan, Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and Elnur Mammadov, Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister. This is how the agency News.am retells the statement. The first two groups will deal with transport and electricity transmission. The forum will bring together policymakers and technical experts from the three countries to work on long-term stability, the economy and regional connectivity. The parties intend the groups to resolve complex technical issues and take the project to the next stages, including links with other regional infrastructure. The three countries reaffirmed their commitment to the swift launch of all modes of TRIPP.
According to Eurasianet, the route is to include a railway, a pipeline and power lines connecting Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave across Armenian territory. Euronews calls TRIPP a 42-kilometre rail and road corridor, adding that it was brokered by US President Donald Trump and rests on the Washington declaration of Armenia and Azerbaijan of August 8, 2025. The Caucasian Knot writes that the project was created with US mediation and with exclusive US rights for 99 years, and that the implementation framework creates no legal obligations for Armenia and the United States. The United States and Armenia published that document on January 13, 2026, a US representative recalled.
Kazakhstan is interested in the project. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Assel Zhanassova on November 6 discussed the transit possibilities of TRIPP for Kazakhstan in Yerevan with Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, the Ministry of Transport said. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev spoke of Kazakhstan’s interest in taking part on November 21, 2025, after talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan: in his words, linking the corridor with the Trans-Caspian route serves the interests of both countries, Interfax reported.
What it means: A project that rested on the framework document of January and the 2025 declaration now has a working mechanism: first two groups, on transport and electricity transmission. The groups are only starting work.
Who benefits: According to the parties, trilateral cooperation should bring all three countries stability, economic growth and commercial prosperity. For Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Transport says, the corridor will provide additional routes and cargo flows; the ministry has not given specific volumes.
Background: Nakhchivan is an exclave of Azerbaijan: the main territory of the country does not border it, and Armenia’s Syunik region lies between them. The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, or Middle Corridor, is a route from China to Europe through Central Asia, the Caspian Sea and the South Caucasus bypassing Russia; it is about 6,500 km long.
We have also reported on Zhanassova discussing Kazakhstan’s transit through TRIPP in Yerevan.
