We are also going to use territory of Nakhchivan to connect north and  south of Armenia by railway - Armenian FM

ArmInfo. In the Washington Declaration, the leaders agreed upon the major fundamental principles according to which the connectivity issue should be solved. I mean, unblocking and relaunching the transport infrastructure, transit ties  between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

And these principles are: acknowledgement of territorial integrity, inviolability of the borders, sovereignty of the countries, acknowledgement of national  jurisdictions over the passages, the infrastructure which is going to  be reconstructed and re-functioning, Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan  stated in an interview with the Poland-based TVP World channel. 

"We can use each other's infrastructure like normal neighbors do, for  instance, in Europe or elsewhere. The part of this infrastructure,  which is the shortest connection between mainland Azerbaijan and  Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, should be operated as TRIPP, which is  "Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.

"So what is this TRIPP? Armenia and the United States are going to  create a consortium, a company, which will be the constructor and the  main operator of the railway passage.  This consortium, in its turn,  can hire a third company or companies to implement this or that, or  provide this or that service for the whole passage. Also, this  consortium can handle, can build and then operate pipelines,  electricity cables etc.

"So, all the arrangements are going to be reciprocal. We are also  going to use, for instance, the territory of the Nakhchivan  Autonomous Republic to connect north and south of Armenia by railway.  There is no railway connection now," Mr Mirzoyan said. 

As to an approximate timeline as to when these borders - specifically  the border with Turkey - would be able to open for this free transit  route, for travel, for everything, and when actually this railway  route would start taking place, Mr Mirzoyan said:

"As I said, we agreed upon the fundamental principles. So now we,  with the delegation or a team from the United States, should agree  upon the technical solutions, the technical modalities of the  passage, of the company which I just mentioned. So we already started  discussions with our American counterparts. I assume we can finalize  this process in the coming months, and then construction should take  place.

"If we speak about this railway connection, I believe, the  specialists say that it can take at least two years, for instance,  etc. But we are very much interested in constructing, opening the  ties, relaunching the ties between Armenia and Azerbaijan as soon as  possible, because as I said, we are one of the main beneficiaries. We  can also send goods, for instance, or receive goods using the  infrastructure and territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan. But this  is the connectivity part." 

As a reminder, on August 8, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan  and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a joint "Declaration of  Peace" in Washington. It includes a joint appeal to the Organization  for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to terminate the OSCE  Minsk Process and related structures, as well as the creation of a  transport corridor through Armenian territory that will connect  Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave. The TRIPP (Trump Route for  International Peace and Prosperity) project, a 42-kilometer road in  southern Armenia whose management will be entrusted to the United  States for a period of 99 years, is believed by experts to have the  potential to significantly change the geopolitical situation in the  South Caucasus.