Armenia gives US part of corridor linking it to Azerbaijan

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed Tuesday during a meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan that Yerevan will give Washington a stake in a corridor of its territory linking parts of Azerbaijan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan signed an agreement in Washington in August under the auspices of US President Donald Trump to end their decades-long conflict.

The agreement includes the establishment of a transit zone that would pass through Armenia and connect Azerbaijan to the Nakhichevan enclave in the west.

This corridor, which Baku has long claimed, will be called the “Trump Path to International Peace and Prosperity”.

The State Department said a 74% US-owned company would be set up and would cost the construction of rail and road infrastructure on the parcel of land.

The project is supposed to allow US investment and access to the US market for critical and rare metals, according to the US State Department’s framework text.

“The agreement will become a model for the world, showing how we can open up to economic activity and prosperity without compromising sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Rubio said during the meeting.

“This will be good for Armenia, good for the United States, good for all concerned,” he said, stressing that the Trump administration would now work to implement the agreement.

Iran has long opposed the creation of the corridor, fearing it would isolate it from the Caucasus and bring a foreign presence to its borders.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stressed that the security of the corridor linking Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan would be ensured by “Armenia, not a third country”.