TRIPP is an Armenian-American project for Azerbaijan and Turkey. Armenian interest is not visible here at all. Armenia is not even a party here, it is a half-party. This project can get Armenia out of that conflict point if it expands and all players become beneficiaries, and especially if China or Russia, for example, join the project, Armenia’s second president, Robert Kocharyan, told a press conference Thursday—and regarding the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) project.

“TRIPP should grow, there can be two TRIPPs: TRIPP one—Meghri section, TRIPP two—Nakhichevan section. Maybe it is easier to form it in terms of organizing, but the content and regulations will be the same. Let it not turn out that the Armenian-American project is a project for Azerbaijan and Turkey. I understand one thing that the United States will try to ‘push’ this project forward, and frankly I do not see the economic interest of the United States,” Kocharyan added.

“The United States-Armenia, United States-Azerbaijan total foreign trade amount is approximately 0.004 percent of the total foreign trade of the United States; this is nothing. The United States has zero economic interest in the South Caucasus, and this interest is connected with one circumstance: Iran, to take control of the border with Iran; there is no other explanation. I have tried very hard to strain my imagination to find something, but there is none. With this project, Armenia is putting itself at the point of collision of major geopolitical interests,” he noted.

Also, Kocharyan expressed confidence that the TRIPP project could become a threat to Armenia.

“TRIPP will become our [i.e. Armenia’s]biggest security threat to. I have the impression that people are held accountable ex officio for matters that they understand absolutely nothing about. The guarantor of the security of any country is, first of all, the army. And, by the way, if you have a combat-ready army—not to start a war, but to have peace. Your combat-ready army increases your ‘weight’ in relations with others. The more combat-ready your army is and the stronger your economy, the more interesting allies you can have and the more they will value your role. If you do not represent anything of yourself, what [kind of] friendship should they have with you? Those sentiments don’t exist in international relations,” said Armenia’s second president.