Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that Armenia is considering granting a 49 or 99-year lease to the yet-unnamed company developing the Trump Route.
During a conference dedicated to the Crossroads of Peace connectivity project on Friday, Pashinyan suggested that the length of the Trump Route lease would be directly tied to the scale of the investment.
‘If we say the land is granted for only five years, no one will invest, because it’s unrealistic to recoup such investments in five years,’ Pashinyan said, according to Civilnet. He additionally said that long-term guarantees are essential to attract major capital.
Pashinyan also said that once the construction of the lease period concludes, ownership of any property built on the land will return to Armenia, while the land itself will always be Armenian state-owned.
He stressed that Armenian institutions will not face restrictions regarding territories which the Trump Route will be built on, citing the outsourcing of other projects in the country, such as Zvartnots Airport.
In mid-July, Pashinyan said that ‘outsourcing’ a route connecting Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan would not compromise Armenia’s sovereignty, citing Armenia’s outsourcing of management of Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport, its water system, railway, and previously, Armenia’s post operator, saying that those remain Armenian property.
Pashinyan said that the first step in implementing the Trump Route would be the creation of a written regulatory framework, which would outline ‘general parameters’. This would be followed by the establishment of an Armenian–American joint company, in which Armenia would be able to hold a decisive vote on matters of strategic importance. He added that work is already underway on the regulatory base of the company, whose structure would be designed to ensure transparency and alignment between Yerevan and Washington as the project advances.
Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed on the establishment of the Trump Route following their summit in Washington in August, where they additionally initialled a peace treaty.
Details of what territory the route would go through, its potential developer, and its implementation remain scant.
Yousef Bardouka
