“There are no discussions at the moment because we agreed to start discussions in September,” he said without going into details.
Pashinian pledged to give the United States exclusive rights to the corridor during talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held at the White House on August 8. Key details of what will be called the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) remain unknown.
A joint declaration by Aliyev and Pashinian makes only a general reference to the TRIPP while a relevant U.S.-Armenian memorandum also signed on August 8 has still not been made public. The Armenian government has still not publicized the memorandum, fueling opposition speculation that it calls for the kind of an extraterritorial corridor that has been sought by Baku.
Pashinian dismissed such suggestions and pledged to publicize the document soon. He claimed that it is “not directly related” to the TRIPP.
“We had a working agreement that we would publish the content [of the document] but not the text, but since there is growing interest among our public, I believe that we will soon reach an agreement with our American partners and publish those documents as well,” he told reporters.
Trump seemingly confirmed on August 8 reports about a long-term U.S. lease on the transit routes that would pass through Armenia’s Syunik province. He said Armenia will establish an “exclusive partnership with the United States to develop this corridor, which could extend for up to 99 years.”
“And then they promise in 99 years they'll extend it, right?” Trump said, turning to Pashinian.
According to unnamed U.S. officials quoted by Western media, the U.S. government is reportedly planning to sublease the land to a consortium of private companies.
“At the moment, we do not have any fixed agreements, including for 99 years,” Pashinian insisted on Thursday.
Aliyev has said all along that the transit of people and cargo through Syunik must be exempt from Armenian border controls. He insisted ahead of the Washington summit that Azerbaijanis travelling to from Nakhichevan “should not see the faces of Armenian border guards or anyone else.” Pashinian has made ambiguous statements on this subject.