“I think, the development of the TRIP, the Trump route for International Peace and Prosperity, is something that is becoming more important certainly in terms of building the long-needed peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta told AZERTAC.

Noting that discussions that took place this week between the United States and Central Asia looked at ways to develop greater economic ties between the United States and part of the world, Cekuta added: “But those economic ties, yes, there are going to be services, certain things that are not necessarily tangible. But if you're talking about moving rare earth and uranium and other sorts of minerals across this part of the world, you're going to need those that improved rail and road transport systems”.

“So what we need to be doing, and we need to be doing now, is looking to act on that vision of the trip, to build those rail and road connections and other connections, and to sort of see that as an important piece that will integrate Western Europe through Turkey. But with Central Asia and then beyond, both China and India in particular. And so this piece of geography that Azerbaijan occupies— if you want to get Russia to the north, Iran to the south of Azerbaijan, if you want to get across Eurasia without going through Russia or Iran, you've got to go through Azerbaijan. Building this infrastructure and working with Azerbaijan and Armenia and Turkey to sort of see this realized is going to be very important and something which we should be really working on right now,” the former Ambassador noted.

Malahat Najafova

Special Correspondent