Yerevan and Washington are still discussing lease term for `Trump  Route` in Syunik

ArmInfo.  Yerevan and Washington are discussing two scenarios for leasing the "Trump Route" - for 49 or 99 years. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced this on November 14 at a conference entitled "Crossroads of the World: Developing Regional Communications and Cooperation."

"The terms are linked to investments and their return on investment,  and the investor must have guarantees that they will receive a return  on their investment, along with a certain margin," Pashinyan  explained.

For example, no investor would invest if Yerevan decided to lease  these lands for five years, since it is unrealistic to ensure a  return on investment within that period, he emphasized.

Therefore, the Armenian Prime Minister continued, the Armenian side  does not see a political component in these discussions - they are  purely financial in nature. Nikol Pashinyan assured that the lease  terms depend solely on the time it takes to recoup the investment and  generate a certain profit.

Furthermore, the Prime Minister recalled, the Trump Route will be  implemented by an Armenian-American consortium, and the project  itself is "multi-profile." Therefore, it may be necessary "in some or  all cases" to invite "a professional investor who knows how to invest  and how to profit."

"The Washington Declaration of August 8 also states that Armenia and  the United States may discuss the involvement of a third party in the  project," Pashinyan noted.

Although the Trump Route is an Armenian-American project, Azerbaijan  is also directly involved. The project will only be fully operational  once the railway is extended through Azerbaijan, he noted.

As a reminder, on August 8, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan  and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a seven-point joint  "Declaration of Peace" in Washington. It calls for 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, surrounded by  Armenia, Turkey, and Iran. Experts believe the TRIPP (Trump Route for  International Peace and Prosperity) project, a 42-kilometer road in  southern Armenia that will hand over control to the United States for  99 years, could significantly change the geopolitical situation in  the South Caucasus.