Sargis Khandanyan, the Civil Contract party’s candidate for chair of the Armenian parliamentary Committee on Foreign Relations, said that the TRIPP is an infrastructure project, not a “territory or military base,” and that no security presence of any other country is envisaged under the project.

Axar.az reports, citing Armenpress, that he made the remarks in Parliament, responding to opposition claims about the connectivity project.

“In general, there will be no security presence of any other country within the TRIPP. As the agreement makes clear, the entire security function is assigned to the Republic of Armenia and the relevant bodies of the Republic of Armenia,” he said.