US, Armenia and Azerbaijan Launch Working Groups on Trump Route

The United States, Armenia and Azerbaijan have launched the first two trilateral planning groups for the TRIPP transport corridor, according to a joint statement published by Armenia's Foreign Ministry on November 7. One group will handle transport. The other will handle electricity transmission.

The launch puts technical work behind a corridor project announced in August 2025, after Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders met at the White House. In June 2026 Armenia and the United States signed a framework agreement on the corridor. The new working groups turn that political framework into engineering homework.

Who sits in the groups?

Three officials opened the work:

• Brendan Hanrahan, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs;
• Vahan Kostanyan, Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia;
• Elnur Mammadov, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan.

Each group will bring together government representatives and technical specialists from all three countries. Their mandate covers technical questions, including how to link the corridor with other infrastructure objects in the region — a point the joint statement spells out explicitly.

"The sides agreed to launch the first two trilateral planning groups, which will deal with transport and electricity transmission," the statement said.

The division of labor is deliberate. Transport and power transmission are the two systems any corridor of this type must settle first. Roads, railways and grid connections decide the engineering feasibility of everything that follows.

What is the Trump Route?

TRIPP stands for "Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity." The project would run a highway and a railway across southern Armenia, connecting the main territory of Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan, the Azerbaijani exclave that Armenia separates from the rest of the country.

The geography drives the logic. Nakhchivan currently has no direct land link through Azerbaijan proper. A corridor across Armenia's south would close that gap and, by extension, open a new east-west axis across the South Caucasus.

The timeline so far:

• August 2025 — the project is announced after Armenia–Azerbaijan talks at the White House;
• June 2026 — Armenia and the US sign a framework agreement on the corridor;
• November 7 — the three states announce the first two working groups.

Could Kazakhstan plug in?

A day before the announcement, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Asel Zhanassova discussed in Yerevan how to connect TRIPP with the Middle Corridor, Kursiv reported. The Middle Corridor carries Kazakh cargo across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan and onward west.

Linking the two routes would give Kazakh carriers an additional path through the South Caucasus — one that runs through Armenia rather than only through Azerbaijan. For shippers moving goods from Central Asia toward Turkey and Europe, an extra corridor option means route flexibility and, potentially, lower transit risk.

What comes next?

The working groups now move to the technical stage: mapping how the road and rail spine ties into regional infrastructure, and how electricity flows alongside it. The joint statement gives no completion dates for this phase. What it does establish is a standing three-country format — with the United States at the table — that will supervise the corridor's engineering groundwork.

For regional trade, the significance is structural. If TRIPP is built, southern Armenia becomes a transit segment between Azerbaijan proper and Nakhchivan, and possibly a branch line for Central Asian cargo already moving through the Middle Corridor. The planning groups launched on November 7 are the first concrete step in that direction.