During a visit to Yerevan, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a framework agreement on a strategic partnership for a railway route intended to connect mainland Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan through Armenia’s Syunik region and further onward to Turkey.
The project has been named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), or simply the “Trump Route.”
For years, Azerbaijan had pushed to open a transport corridor through Syunik, while Armenian authorities opposed the idea out of concern that it could undermine the country’s control over the region and threaten its sovereignty. The situation changed after Armenia and Azerbaijan signed peace agreements in August 2025 under the mediation of Donald Trump.
At the time, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a joint declaration expressing readiness to implement the railway project. Armenia’s current foreign minister, Ararat Mirzoyan, signed the latest agreement on behalf of Yerevan.
Marco Rubio described the document as “a huge step” toward implementing the route and said the project should help strengthen peace and economic development across the region.
According to the U.S. secretary of state, the administration in Washington is paying close attention to the initiative, while Donald Trump views the route as one of the key achievements of his second presidential term.