Trump Route prospects dim amid US-Iran conflict — Russian MFA

MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. The prospects for launching the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) project are bleak in light of the US-Iran conflict, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Fourth CIS Department Mikhail Kalugin said in an interview with TASS. "A number of experts believe that, given the Iranian-American conflict, the prospects for launching the Trump Route are bleak. They note that in addition to Iran’s negative perception of the US presence on its northern borders, American control over the route from Central Asia to Europe, of which the Trump Route is intended to be a part, could also generate mistrust among Asian partners. And without Chinese and Russian cargo, it will be extremely difficult to recoup the investment in the project," the diplomat noted. According to Kalugin, there are a number of objective factors in this matter that must be taken into account. "These include the presence of Russian border guards on the Armenian-Iranian border, the need to lay a Russian-standard railway line for a seamless connection with the Azerbaijani one, the concession of South Caucasus Railways CJSC to manage the Armenian railway network, which is valid until 2038, and the inclusion of Armenia in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) single customs space," the diplomat continued. Overall, this project, as a transit route between mainland Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan through southern Armenia, did not arise out of nowhere, Kalugin emphasized. "Its emergence was preceded by two years of painstaking work within the Russia-Azerbaijan-Armenia format, namely, the trilateral working group co-chaired by deputy prime ministers. By 2023, we were close to launching the so-called Meghri route, which was supposed to not only ensure transit through southern Armenia to Nakhichevan, but also, in essence, connect the Armenian and Azerbaijani railways," he added. "This is precisely what Armenia is now trying so hard to achieve, relying on the ‘Trump Route.’ But the problem is that the Armenian-American initiative, unlike the ‘Meghri route,’ does not automatically provide for a full connection of the Armenian and Azerbaijani railway infrastructure. It is not our fault that Yerevan deliberately froze the work of the trilateral working group in 2023." On August 8, 2025, following a trilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a joint declaration on a peaceful settlement between Baku and Yerevan and the creation of a transport link between the mainland of Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan. This project was dubbed the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity. On April 2, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk stated in an interview with TASS that the signing of the agreement to implement the Trump Route project had upset the regional balance in the South Caucasus.