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U.S. Vice President JD Vance is set to visit Armenia and Azerbaijan this week in a diplomatic push to advance a Washington-brokered peace agreement that could significantly reshape energy flows and trade routes across the strategically vital South Caucasus region.
Vance’s two-day visit to Armenia, beginning later on Monday, comes just six months after Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders signed a landmark agreement at the White House—widely viewed as the first concrete step toward ending nearly four decades of conflict between the two rivals. The trip marks a historic moment, as Vance becomes the first sitting U.S. vice president to visit Armenia.
At the center of the visit is Washington’s effort to promote the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), a proposed 43-kilometre corridor running through southern Armenia. The route would provide Azerbaijan with direct access to its Nakhchivan exclave and onward to Turkey, its closest regional ally, dramatically improving regional connectivity.
The Armenian government said Vance will meet Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, after which both leaders are expected to deliver statements. Following his Armenia stop, Vance will travel to Azerbaijan on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the White House.
Under the agreement signed last year, a private U.S. entity—the TRIPP Development Company—has been granted exclusive rights to develop the corridor. Crucially, Armenia retains full sovereignty over its territory, including control over borders, customs, taxation, and security, addressing long-standing domestic concerns over national authority.
From Washington’s perspective, the corridor has strategic importance far beyond the region. TRIPP would strengthen trade links between Asia and Europe while deliberately bypassing both Russia and Iran—an increasingly urgent priority for Western governments seeking to diversify supply chains and energy routes amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
Moscow has historically regarded the South Caucasus as part of its sphere of influence, but its leverage has weakened as resources and attention remain tied up in Ukraine. The proposed corridor underscores a broader geopolitical realignment in the region, with the U.S. positioning itself as a key broker and beneficiary.
Another central focus of Vance’s visit is expected to be access to critical minerals. The TRIPP corridor could become a vital transit route for Central Asia’s vast mineral resources—including uranium, copper, gold, and rare earth elements—facilitating their movement to Western markets at a time when securing supply chains for strategic materials has become a top priority for the U.S. and its allies.
From Closed Borders to Economic Reconnection
During the Soviet era, the South Caucasus was densely connected by railways and energy pipelines. However, a series of conflicts beginning in the late 1980s severed these links, closed borders, and halted cross-border trade—most notably between Armenia and Turkey.
Armenia and Azerbaijan were locked in a bitter conflict for nearly 40 years, primarily over Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized part of Azerbaijan that slipped out of Baku’s control following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Two wars followed, culminating in Azerbaijan’s decisive retaking of the region in 2023. The conflict triggered the mass exodus of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population, estimated at around 100,000 people, to Armenia.
In recent months, however, the two neighbors have made cautious but tangible progress toward normalization, including the resumption of some energy shipments. If advanced successfully, the TRIPP corridor could serve as both an economic catalyst and a geopolitical turning point—reconnecting a fractured region while redrawing the map of Eurasian trade and energy flows.
