Vahe Davtyan: Armenia being marginalized from the emerging  architecture of regional energy transit

ArmInfo.Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Yevgeny Grabchak's statement about the completion of the feasibility study for the project to connect the energy systems of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, marks an important stage in the development of a new transit electricity corridor called the  <North-South> corridor. Vahe Davtyan, expert in cross-border transport and energy projects, political scientist and Doctor of Sciences, expressed this viewpoint  on his Telegram page.

 He noted that in the first stage, the project envisages to transfer   up to 200 MW of electricity from Russia to Iran, passing through  Azerbaijan's energy system, which is a precedent for regional energy  redistribution that bypasses Armenia. In fact, we are talking about  launching an alternative route that strengthens the  Moscow-Baku-Tehran geoenergetic axis, potentially running parallel or  even in opposition to the Iran- Armenia-Georgia-Russia energy  integration project, that has been long-discussed but never  implemented.  The latter was seen as a key instrument for  institutionalizing the Armenian-Iranian energy partnership and  providing the Armenian electric power industry access to the Black  Sea region. 

However, the lack of a coordinated long-term strategy, fragmented  logistics, dependence on the unstable Armenian-Georgian hub, and  chronic underfunding of the infrastructure components of this  corridor are gradually removing Armenia from the active energy  process. The main risk is the marginalization of Armenia in the  emerging architecture of regional energy transit. In conditions where  neighboring states are consistently institutionalizing their energy  interests, Yerevan risks losing even the limited role it has played  in the regional electric power industry in recent years. At the same  time, the strategic underestimation of energy as an instrument of  foreign policy influence turns the Armenian energy system into an  object, not a subject of transnational processes. The specialist  believes that the new Russia-Azerbaijan-Iran link is not just a  technical route, but an indicator of a growing energy gap. Armenia  may fall into this gap  in the absence of urgent institutional and  strategic decisions.