Armenia builds railway outside Russian oversight: Pashinyan ally details TRIPP project

A railway planned for southern Armenia under the TRIPP initiative—dubbed the Trump Route—will not be managed by the Russian South Caucasus Railway (SCR), Armenian official announced.

Sargis Khandanyan, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Relations, and a member of the ruling party, clarified the project’s ownership structure, Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.

“The existing railway lines in the country are under the balance of SCR. The 43 kilometres of railway within the framework of the Trump Route will belong to the company TRIPP, which is planned to be established as part of the project,” he said.

The Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) is a major regional infrastructure initiative aimed at connecting mainland Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic exclave via Armenia’s Syunik region.

The project is backed by a declaration signed on August 8, 2025, in Washington by the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia together with US President Donald Trump. TRIPP is intended to function both as a confidence-building peace mechanism and as a strategic logistics corridor.

The initiative includes the construction of new railway and road links, as well as oil and gas pipelines, fibre-optic communications networks, and power transmission lines. Its broader objective is to integrate South Caucasus countries into the “Middle Corridor” trade route linking Europe and Asia, thereby enhancing regional transit capacity, trade flows, and economic diversification.

By Vafa Guliyeva