Pashinyan says talks on TRIPP with U.S. constructive, thanks Putin for supporting Yerevan-Baku peace process

ST. PETERSBURG. Dec 22 (Interfax) - The talks with the United States on the construction of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) are very constructive, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

"We are now having [...] very constructive bilateral talks with the United States on the start of the fulfilment and construction of the TRIPP route," Pashinyan said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of an informal CIS summit in St. Petersburg on Monday.

The changes taking place in the region now are "very large and substantive," he said.

"I would like to thank you for supporting the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan," Pashinyan said.

The achieved peace will open up new opportunities for further development of bilateral relations between Armenia and Russia, he said.

"It has already happened as trains are already arriving from Russia in Armenia through the territory of Azerbaijan," Pashinyan said, calling it a historical event.

"New opportunities are opening, and the agenda for restoring some other railroad parts in our country has already emerged. I mean, in particular, in the Ijevan, Yeraskh and Akhurik sectors [...] there is quite an active political process going on, I cannot say there are already political decisions to open these railways, but I think the situation has reached a point where preparations need to be made already," Pashinyan said.

The Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), also known as the Trump Route, is a 42-kilometer long transit corridor between Azerbaijan and its exclave Nakhchivan on the territory of Armenia. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in Washington on August 8 that U.S. President Donald Trump and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had signed a declaration that stated that Armenia would work with the United States in collaboration with some third parties to come up with the framework of the TRIPP transport connectivity project on the territory of Armenia. The TRIPP project envisages the construction of motorway, railway and oil and gas infrastructure facilities.