Rubio concludes one-hour visit to Armenia after signing Trump Route framework agreement
US State Secretary Marco Rubio has made a brief visit to Armenia, signing a framework agreement on the planned Trump Route (TRIPP) through the country’s south with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.
In a press briefing after the signing, Rubio described the document as the ‘biggest step to date on making this historic route a reality’.
The Trump Route would connect Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakchivan through Armenian territory. Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to the establishment of the route under the mediation of US President Donald Trump in August 2025 in Washington, alongside initialing their peace agreement.
‘The president takes tremendous pride not simply in TRIPP […] but in all of the other things we continue to build on’, Rubio said, adding that they were ‘laying ground for economic engagement to allow Armenians to make money and find prosperity and Americans do the same’.
‘Both yourself and the prime minister and your entire team here in Armenia are blazing the trail towards a brighter and more independent future for Armenia’, Rubio continued.
Rubio and Mirzoyan also signed a strategic partnership charter, with the Armenian minister saying that Armenia–US relations ‘are stronger today than ever’.
‘It would not be an exaggeration to say that we have entered a historically unprecedented phase, given the frequent developments on our bilateral agenda’, Armenpress quoted him as saying.
The two also signed a memorandum on the extraction of critical minerals, which Rubio said were ‘essential to all of these technologies and innovations’.
‘Countries that are able to do that are gonna be able to find economic independence and find themselves at the centre of innovation in the 21st century’, he said.
Rubio departed from Armenia shortly after, concluding a visit that barely lasted an hour.
