The route would better connect Asia to Europe at a time when Washington wants to diversify energy and trade flows away from Russia due to its war in Ukraine.
“Our hope is that (TRIPP) will help build economic cooperation, cooperation on natural resources and critical minerals, and make it possible for this incredible peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia to truly endure,” Vance said at a press conference with Aliyev.
Azerbaijan is keen to showcase its potential as a reliable partner for the US in the region, said Rauf Mammadov, an energy policy scholar at the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington-based think-tank.
“In terms of the hierarchy of priorities, Azerbaijan positioning itself as…a Western-oriented island of stability between Russia and Iran is important,” he said.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have made steps towards putting their nearly 40-year-old conflict to rest since meeting with Trump last year. No formal peace deal has been signed, however, although they have restarted some energy shipments.
(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova in Baku and Lucy Papachristou in Tbilisi; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; editing by Mark Trevelyan and Kevin Liffey)
