Zangezur corridor become part of TEN-T: European Union is joining fight for South Caucasus

Azerbaijan and the European Union are discussing the inclusion of the Zangezur corridor in the pan-European transport network TEN-T (Trans-European Transport Networks).

Last week, the Minister of Digital Development and Transport of Azerbaijan Rashad Nabiyev met with the Director General of the European Commission's Directorate General for Enlargement and the Eastern Neighborhood, Gert Jan Koopman. It is reported that the key topic of the negotiations was the development of transport infrastructure, in particular, the preparation of a feasibility study of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic railway network, which, as is known, will become part of the future TRIPP (Zangezur Corridor).

Earlier in Davos, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos, at a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, said that the European Union was ready to support Azerbaijan in rebuilding the railway in NAR.

Thus, the EU will invest in the modernization of the autonomy's railways. The European Union and Azerbaijan, together with the European Investment Bank, have agreed to start work on the preparation of a feasibility study. The EU Delegation to Azerbaijan told reporters that this railway will become part of a larger Medium-range corridor aimed at connecting Europe and Central Asia, with a planned transit period of 15 days.

It should be noted that within the framework of this project, 10 stations and 814 engineering structures are planned to be built in the NAR, including 29 bridges and 4 tunnels. The length of the line is 194.1 km. Work on the design and construction of a railway line in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic began in 2025. Work is already underway to lay tracks to Ordubad station at the Salammelik station bordering Armenia.

The Nakhchivan section of the future TRIPP corridor is significant not only because of its transit function. It is important to have access to Turkiye, Iran and further to the Persian Gulf. Turkiye is currently building a road in the direction of NAR- Kars-Igdir-Aralyk-Diluju-the border with Azerbaijan. By connecting to Turkiye's railway network, the Zangezur Corridor will reach Europe, more precisely, the Trans-European transport networks. The inclusion of European investments will help speed up the work and make the EU a direct participant in the project. The interest shown by the EU proves once again that Europe considers the South Caucasus as part of its transport architecture. In addition, the European Union thus shows that it does not want to lag behind the United States and also contributes to strengthening the peace process in our region.

Connecting Azerbaijan to the TEN-T network is not a new idea. Back in 2017, the AR and the EU signed a document defining the tentative map of the TEN-T network. Today, Azerbaijan is already contributing to the European network through projects such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and the Baku International Commercial Seaport. The inclusion of Azerbaijan's infrastructure in the TEN-T system significantly simplifies logistics between Europe and Asia through the Caspian region. Now the next step is to connect the Zangezur corridor.

TEN-T is an ambitious infrastructure project of the European Union, which involves the creation by 2050 of a new transport system in the EU, including 94 ports, 38 airports and about 15,000 kilometers of high-speed railways.

The European Union has always been interested in the transport and logistics opportunities of the South Caucasus. But the existence of the Karabakh conflict did not allow the Europeans to realize their full interest. In November 2005, the European Commission published the report of the High-level Group "Expansion of the main Trans-European routes to neighboring countries and regions." The main routes of the transport corridors have been identified. Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea, as well as the country's capabilities and infrastructure, were repeatedly mentioned in the report as part of the Southeastern route. However, Armenia always fell out of this grid, because under the conditions of the ongoing occupation, the opening of communications between the two countries was out of the question. The EC report states: Azerbaijan stated that no cooperation or other activities on the transport corridor linking Armenia with Azerbaijan are possible until the main consequences of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan are eliminated. Armenia stated that in order to improve regional cooperation, it is ready to establish and develop cooperation with Azerbaijan without any preconditions."

Although Armenia looked more constructive and correct in the report, which did not mention the fact of military aggression and occupation of territories, this did not help it. All roads remained closed to it for another 20 years, until Baku announced in October 2025 that restrictions on the transit of goods to Armenia through Azerbaijani territory would be lifted. The liberation war of 2020 and other events that took place in the post-war years created a situation in which Yerevan had no other options but to agree to peace on the terms of the winner. Armenia started receiving dividends from these processes very soon. Just a couple of months after the Washington meeting, wheat trains for this country passed through Azerbaijan. Then she became a buyer of Azerbaijani oil products at below-market prices. Recently, another train carrying Russian grain arrived in Armenia. And the two countries are now planning a transition from transit to bilateral trade.

The Zangezur Corridor, or TRIPP, is a gift that Armenia could not even dream of. After losing the war, Armenia got the opportunity to become a part of transcontinental transit and integrate into TEN-T. This could have happened even earlier if the peace negotiations that lasted for a quarter of a century had yielded a positive result. There was some pressure on Baku to persuade it to open communications and connect Armenia to regional projects, but it was adamant. When the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was conceived, Azerbaijan faced serious resistance, as Western countries, led by the United States, announced a kind of boycott of the project because the BTK bypassed Armenia and allegedly contributed to the continuation of its "blockade." This did not stop Azerbaijan, it built a road at its own expense, despite the ill will of external players and negative forecasts.

In January 2019, the EC decided to expand TEN-T beyond the EU to the Eastern Partnership countries, including Azerbaijan. This decision was made by the European Commission at the legislative level and also included a financial component. By that time, the BTK, rejected by Europe, had already started operating, the largest international trade port in the Caspian Sea was built in Alyat, and a modern East-West highway was laid from the Caspian coast to the border with Georgia. Azerbaijan has actually offered the Europeans a ready-made transit route with all the necessary infrastructure. The European Union has no choice but to acknowledge this fact and take advantage of the opportunities opened up by Baku. At the same time, the EU connectivity strategy began to consider Azerbaijan and Georgia as key links connecting Europe with Central Asia with the active participation of the European Union through the Global Gateway initiative. The talk about bypassing Armenia and the "blockade" faded somehow by itself.

In early January, the Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP) published an article in which it stated that the EU can play a proactive but complementary role alongside the United States in promoting sustainable peace and regional connectivity in the South Caucasus. Brussels should not compete with Washington's leadership, but the EU's passivity is unacceptable.

It is significant that in parallel with the discussions surrounding the connection of the Zangezur Corridor to the Trans-European Networks, agreements were signed in Tbilisi last week between BTKI Railways LLC (a joint venture of subsidiaries of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC and Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway LLC) and Georgian Railways JSC. One of the documents regulates the use of the railway infrastructure on the Marabda-Akhalkalaki section, the other is related to the terminal services at the Akhalkalaki station. Earlier, JSC AZHD successfully completed repair and rehabilitation work and modernization of the 184-kilometer section of the BTK line passing through Georgia through an area with difficult terrain, as a result of which the annual capacity of the line increased from 1 million tons of cargo to 5 million tons.

Recall that in November 2022, a Roadmap for 2022-2027 was signed in Aktau for the simultaneous elimination of "bottlenecks" and the development of port and railway infrastructure in order to increase cargo turnover along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TMTM). In the medium term, it is planned to increase the capacity of the route, including BTK, to 10 million tons. The achievement of this goal depends on the joint efforts of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkiye and Kazakhstan.

Tbilisi expects that 2026 will be a significant year for the Georgian transport sector, as the active phase of construction of the Anaklia deepwater port will begin, as well as the modernization of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway on Georgian territory will be fully completed.

During a briefing at the Azerbaijani Embassy in Brussels last December, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev, referring to the Zangezur corridor, stressed that Baku would like to see the European Union as part of this new transport architecture.