The United States pledged Tuesday to move forward with Armenia on a planned corridor connecting parts of rival Azerbaijan, during a lightning visit by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio, returning from a four-day trip to India, met his Armenian counterpart during a refueling stop in the former Soviet republic, which has long been allied with Moscow but has sought closer relations with the West.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. US President Donald Trump’s administration has been working on a road-and-rail corridor initiative named after him – the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) – that would run through Armenia and connect Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave, cut off from Armenian territory. Rubio said he initialled another step in the TRIPP project with the Armenian foreign minister, Ararat Mirzoyan. “This agreement marks the biggest step to date on making this historic route a reality, on advancing peace, and on increasing prosperity in Armenia and frankly in the region,” Rubio said at a signing ceremony at the Yerevan airport. The text of the agreement was not immediately released and it was unclear what new steps the two countries would take. In January, the State Department laid out a framework in which Armenia would give the United States a 74 percent share in a new “TRIPP Development Company” with an explicit promise to benefit US companies.