Opinion

Stephen Blank November 5, 2025

President Donald Trump, center, sits during a trilateral signing with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, left, and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the State Dining Room of the White House, Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, in Washington. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

Stephen Blank, a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, is an internationally recognized authority on Russian foreign policy matters with over 1,200 published articles and 15 books, including “Russian Nuclear Weapons: Past, Present, and Future.”

A long-standing truism is that legislation should support national interests and the strategies needed to realize them. This precept now possesses special relevance for Washington’s position in the Caucasus. One of the most audacious and far-reaching initiatives of the Trump administration is the Trump Road for International Peace and Prosperity in the Caucasus (TRIPP). At a single stroke, it has brought a virtual end to 30 years of Armenian-Azerbaijani hostilities, forging a trade, transport and connectivity route that brings Azerbaijan and, beyond it, Central Asia to Europe and the West, while underscoring the administration’s new commitment to an expanded and enduring presence in the Caucasus.

As a result, this project has transformed both the Caucasus and Central Asia, exposed the weaknesses of Iran and Russia in both regions, and stolen a march on China. It is Washington, not Beijing, that is making the so-called Middle Corridor into an intercontinental trade route from China through these regions to Europe possible and will provide security for trade along this crucial route.

If this geopolitical masterstroke is to realize its purpose of pacifying former belligerents, opening vast new vistas for international trade, and ensuring a long-term American presence, the U.S. Congress must sustain it through appropriate legislation for the long term. This means repealing Section 907 of the 1992 Foreign Support Act, which bars the U.S. government from giving Azerbaijan most forms of inter-governmental aid and assistance. Although the president has the authority to waive this section, as long as it remains on the books, it restricts American power, policy and influence in the Caucasus. It is a legislative relic from a prior generation, when Armenia and Azerbaijan were at war and the Armenian diaspora in America used its influence to secure Section 907 as a club to be used against Azerbaijan.

Those days are over. Armenia and Azerbaijan have signed a peace declaration. Now is the time for congressional legislation to duly strengthen the U.S. influence and presence in Central Asia. Preserving Section 907’s restrictions only impedes the ability of America’s diplomats and business leaders to work with Azerbaijan, which has become a beacon of independence against Russian and Iranian threats. Moreover, Azerbaijan has also become a major player in and conveyor of trade from Central Asia to Europe by virtue of its geographical location on the other side of the Caspian Sea. Since Central Asian governments clearly seek an enhanced relationship with Washington, as demonstrated by the impending Thursday meeting of all their presidents with President Donald Trump (C5+1), U.S. legislation should facilitate rather than obstruct national interest and strategy.

However important ties to the U.S. are for Central Asia, connections to these resource-rich states are steadily rising in importance for America as well. To give one example, the United States depends far too much on Russian uranium sales despite the extensive sanctions Washington has imposed on Russia due to the war against Ukraine. It would benefit the U.S. and Kazakhstan if there was a mutual relationship whereby the Kazakhs could ship uranium to America using TRIPP.

Another example is rare earths. These elements have grown in importance due to China’s efforts to corner the market, use its leverage to cripple American and European industry and defense capabilities, and force its rivals to negotiate on Beijing’s terms. While Trump and President Xi Jinping most recently extended a “truce” in this arena, this does not alter the fact that China strategically dominates the mining and refining of rare earths. Diversifying America’s sources or these strategic minerals through a combination of friend-shoring and home-shoring is clearly the next step.

Central Asia possesses abundant stocks of these commodities and clearly does not want to subordinate itself either to China or Russia in this sector, and Trump seeks investment and trade opportunities for U.S.-based companies in the region. Meanwhile, Central Asian leaders want to expand cooperations with Washington regarding the surveying, mining, processing and export of rare earths and other critical minerals, demonstrating a mutuality of interests.

In this context, failing to show U.S. support for Azerbaijan’s regional influence in both the Caucasus and Central Asia by preserving outdated legislation and not supporting U.S. strategic interests the necessary legislative scaffolding is senseless, as rare earths and other key commodities must traverse the TRIPP to reach Western markets. Neither does it demonstrate to U.S. adversaries, China, Russia, and Iran, all of whom are trying to subject Azerbaijan to their interests, that the United States is firm in its resolve to support a state that wants a partnership with Washington, has considerable strength of its own, and at the same time contributes to our critical strategic interests in the Middle East through its ties with Israel, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Whereas Russia and Iran threaten Azerbaijan quite unsubtly, China is using its economic power and connections to try to increase its influence over Baku, as demonstrated by the recent sale of Chinese-Pakistani JF-17 fighters to Baku via Islamabad. As Kamran Bokhari, senior director at the New Lines Institute for Strategy & Policy observes, there is no reason why U.S. companies should be barred from such sales. Thus, thanks to the innovative TRIPP initiative, it is possible to promote U.S. interests in a multitude of increasingly important and potentially critical arenas. To do so, it is necessary to recognize the altered and emerging strategic landscape in the Caucasus and Central Asia and the opportunities this offers to America. To embed the TRIPP in the regional context and advance U.S. interests, it also is essential that Congress act to advance those interests rather than retard them. Repealing Section 907 is the right move at the right time, and the benefits of doing so will be immense.