Yesterday, US Secretary of State Marko Rubio and Armenia's Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan announced in Washington the implementation framework of the Trump International Peace and Prosperity Route (TRIPP) implementation framework.
Does this mean that all legal and political issues regarding the Zangezur corridor have been resolved and that there are no longer any political or legal obstacles to the opening of the corridor?
Medianews.az asked this question to political analyst Oktay Gasimov, who stated that the agreements reached during the meeting between Marko Rubio and Ararat Mirzoyan are an important step towards the opening of the Zangezur corridor, that is, the "Trump route": "According to the agreement reached in Washington on August 8 last year, the US has taken responsibility for overseeing this transport corridor. An agreement with Armenia had been reached on this matter. Subsequently, US representatives visited Armenia and conducted preliminary assessments. It was determined that 145 million dollars of funding was needed to open the corridor. The allocation of this amount has also been resolved. Following this, the legal, technical, and economic justifications of the issue needed to be finalized, and the implementation document announced yesterday by Rubio and Mirzoyan is an important milestone in those legal and technical justifications.”
O. Gasimov noted that, in fact, the implementation document indicates the completion of legal procedures: “After this, it is very likely that the parties will discuss the technical details, agree on the construction start date, its stages, and other practical matters. The completion of the agreement on the legal basis paves the way for practical steps. Statements from Yerevan show that in the second half of this year, probably after the parliamentary elections in Armenia, the opening of the Zangezur corridor will commence. In this regard, the agreement reached in Washington yesterday and the announcement of the implementation framework are an important progress.”
Nailə Gasimova,
Medianews.az
