The TRIPP agreement will be submitted to parliament for ratification in the very near future, said Sargis Khandanyan, the ruling Civil Contract faction’s nominee for chair of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Responding to concerns raised by opposition lawmaker Lilit Galstyan, he said the Armenian government had acted with sufficient transparency regarding the project throughout this period and had consistently provided information about the ongoing process.
According to him, the answers to essentially all the questions raised by the lawmaker are contained in the framework agreement on strategic cooperation between the Republic of Armenia and the United States regarding TRIPP.
“The agreement will come to parliament in the very near future, and we will ratify it, after which the process will enter into legal force. I believe it will be considered by the Constitutional Court in September,” Khandanyan said.
Khandanyan also said TRIPP is not limited to railway infrastructure; it also includes a road and other types of infrastructure. Armenia will retain its sovereignty and jurisdiction over them, while technical and feasibility studies are currently underway.
Khandanyan also recalled that a fund has been established in the U.S. where investments are being accumulated to implement the project.
“I am very hopeful that in the near future we will already see construction work, which will be very important,” he said.
Responding to Galstyan’s question on whether the project poses a security threat or provides a guarantee, Khandanyan said it is unequivocally a security guarantee.
