Speaking during a visit to Syunik, the head of the EU Delegation in Yerevan, Vassilis Maragos, reiterated the 27-nation bloc’s positive reaction to Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements reached in Washington on August 8 during a summit brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump.
One of those agreements commits Armenia to ensuring “unhindered communication” between Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan through what will be called the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP). The United States is to have exclusive rights to the corridor.
“We are ready to deploy our tools not only in the context of the [TRIPP] project which you mentioned but also in the context of the [Armenian government’s] whole Crossroads of Peace project which has been welcomed by the European Union since its announcement two years ago,” Maragos told journalists.
“We are very happy that peace is coming. There are many details which still need to be clarified, but we are here as a reliable partner of Armenia, the Armenian people, the Armenian government in order to support these efforts,” he said.
The envoy did not specify what concrete forms EU assistance to the TRIPP could take.
Visiting Armenia later in August, a senior U.S. State Department official said Washington is planning to allocate $145 million for the creation of the TRIPP. In a related development, a team of U.S. customs and immigration officials held talks with their Armenian colleagues in Yerevan last week.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan cautioned on Tuesday that the U.S. and Armenian governments have yet to work out crucial details of the controversial transit arrangement. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian similarly gave on Thursday no time frames for its implementation. Pashinian implied that the process is taking longer than was expected by Yerevan because the Trump administration has been very busy dealing with the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
Incidentally, the Armenian ambassador to the U.S., Narek Mkrtchian, spoke with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday during an event held at the Holocaust Museum in Washington. They discussed “the progress of the August 8 agreements and regional developments,” the Armenian Embassy there said without elaborating.