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Point 4 of the declaration on the "Trump Route," signed in Washington on August 8, states that the TRIPP project is a matter of discussion between Armenia and the United States, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during a Q&A session with Cabinet members in parliament.
“Civil Contract” faction MP Arusyak Julhakyan noted that, following the August 8 Washington agreements, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev once again used the term "Zangezur Corridor," which contradicts the name "Trump Route" used in the declaration.
“There is an objective reality, and there are subjective perceptions. The objective reality is that Armenia and Azerbaijan have once again recognized each other's territorial integrity, sovereignty, jurisdiction, and the inviolability of borders in Washington,” Pashinyan said.
The Prime Minister presented a photocopy of the declaration from Washington, which bears his signature confirming the creation of an infrastructure called TRIPP in Armenia.
“But that’s not the whole story. This protocol also has the signature of the President of the United States. And that's not the whole story either, it also bears the signature of the President of Azerbaijan," Pashinyan said, adding that the three sides have defined the framework for regional communications and de-blockade.
He underlined that Point 4 of the document clearly states that the TRIPP project is an issue on the agenda of discussions between Armenia and the United States.
"The question will arise: what does Azerbaijan have to do with that topic? The connection is that the communications of Armenia and Azerbaijan should be interconnected. But the TRIPP project is a matter of bilateral discussion between Armenia and the United States. And it has the signature of not only the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of the United States, but also the President of Azerbaijan,” Pashinyan said.
He added that Armenia and the United States have signed a memorandum of intent on the development of the Crossroads of Peace project.
“Thereby, the United States and we have agreed that the project will be implemented based on the principle of Armenia's territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of its borders. The United States is interested in investing there. This is the objective reality, the rest is subjective,” he said.
Pashinyan stressed that no infrastructure with the name mentioned by Aliyev can exist on Armenian territory.
“But I cannot exclude that this name has become so popular in Azerbaijan that any infrastructure passing through its territory, including those that should join the Trump Route, may be called by that name. But it has nothing to do with the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, the agenda of the Republic of Armenia or the agreements reached in Washington,” the Prime Minister emphasized.