The Pashinyan–Aliyev call, placed by the Armenian side according to Baku’s readout, reviewed the year since the summit that established peace between the two states and initialled the text of a peace agreement. Yerevan’s readout lists the year’s gains in trade terms: Azerbaijani oil products now flow to Armenia, and transit cargo crosses Azerbaijani territory to and from Armenia. Both sides credited Donald Trump and the US government with advancing the peace process.
The Trump call came the same evening. Pashinyan and Trump “reaffirmed their determination to begin construction work on TRIPP in the near future”, per the Armenian readout, which carries neither a date nor a financing figure.
The freight already runs on a schedule. A 25-wagon train left Baku’s Bilajari station for Armenia on Saturday carrying 1,049 tonnes of Russian wheat and 700 tonnes of coal via Georgia. By Report.az’s count, Russian transit through Azerbaijan to Armenia has passed 37,000 tonnes of wheat, alongside Azerbaijan’s own exports of some 15,000 tonnes of diesel and 5,000 tonnes of gasoline.
Moscow’s anniversary contribution ran colder. Dmitry Medvedev told RIA Novosti on Saturday that “exactly the same consequences” as Georgia’s await Armenia if it keeps its course toward “a mythical reunification with the West”, and that an economic break with Russia would bring “a deep internal crisis”. That answered, in register if nothing else, Pashinyan’s statement on Friday that membership of the EAEU and the EU at once is impossible. An institutional Russian reply to that statement has yet to surface in the feeds the desk has read.
For now the corridor exists as a commitment. The wheat trains already have a timetable.