Speaking at a news briefing following a weekly cabinet meeting, Pashinian said new applications are being generated for exporting certain categories of goods from Russia to Armenia through Azerbaijani territory, signaling what he described as rapidly changing realities.
“Unexpected and dynamic developments are taking place — things are changing daily,” Pashinian told reporters. “Initially, the first train was expected from Kazakhstan, but it turned out that Azerbaijan also allows trains from Russia to pass. Now, certain commodities from Russia are being prepared for export to Armenia through that route.”
The prime minister said cargo flows are beginning to “restructure” to reach Armenia via Azerbaijan, even as the original Kazakh train has yet to arrive. He added that new applications for such transits are continually emerging.
“It remains to be seen how goods will flow in the opposite direction — from Armenia through Georgia and Azerbaijan toward Russia, Kazakhstan, or other countries,” he said, reiterating Armenia’s readiness to allow Azerbaijani and Turkish trucks to pass along the Margara–Kornidzor route between Turkey and Azerbaijan.
A train carrying over 1,000 tons of Russian wheat arrived in Armenia on November 5 after transiting the territories of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Officials in Yerevan said additional shipments from Kazakhstan are expected in the coming days.
The deliveries follow Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s decision to lift a decades-long ban on the transit of goods to Armenia.
Pashinian’s office released a statement earlier today welcoming the resumed transit as a step toward “strengthening mutual trust and promoting the peace agenda.”
“The lifting of restrictions on cargo transportation to Armenia is an important step by Azerbaijan toward restoring regional communications and promoting economic cooperation,” the statement said. It described the development as a “practical implementation” of agreements reached in Washington in August.
During a visit to Kazakhstan last month, Aliyev said the end of the transit ban “proves that peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia is no longer on paper but in practice.”
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk, who previously said that Russia’s state-run Russian Railways company was coordinating with regional partners to organize shipments to Armenia via Azerbaijan, also welcomed the resumption of transit today.
Armenia and Azerbaijan had not used each other’s territory for cargo transit since the late 1980s and early 1990s when a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh broke out, leading to two major wars.
The trilateral summit in Washington in August resulted in the initialing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace agreement and a declaration signed by Pashinian, Aliyev, and U.S. President Donald Trump. The declaration, in particular, commits Armenia to ensuring “unimpeded connectivity” between mainland Azerbaijan and its Nakhchivan exclave through Armenian territory “with reciprocal benefits for international and intra-state connectivity for the Republic of Armenia.” The United States is to have exclusive oversight of what has been dubbed the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP).