Lelo Proposes Naming Anaklia Port After Donald Trump to Secure Georgia's Transit Role
By Messenger Staff
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
The opposition Lelo/Strong Georgia party has formally proposed renaming the Anaklia deep-sea port project in honor of U.S. President Donald Trump. Party leadership framed the proposal as a strategic move to integrate Georgia into the newly announced Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), a transit corridor emerging from the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
During a special briefing on April 7, Lelo Secretary General Irakli Kupradze urged stakeholders to designate the port as the "gateway of the Trump Route for the Western world." The proposal comes amid growing domestic anxiety that Georgia could be excluded from regional trade flows if the TRIPP corridor, which connects Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave through southern Armenia, bypasses Georgian territory.
The Anaklia port, a multi-billion dollar project on Georgia's Black Sea coast, has been mired in political and financial delays for years. While the Georgian government recently selected a Sino-Singaporean consortium to develop the site, critics argue the deal has stalled. Kupradze asserted that the port's completion is the only way to ensure Georgia remains a central player in regional logistics. He noted that this route must not bypass Georgia and that the port would serve as a logical continuation of the Trump Route to bring security and Western investment.
The proposal follows a series of high level engagements between U.S. officials and Georgian representatives. In November 2025, State Department Senior Advisor Jonathan Askonas visited Georgia to discuss the TRIPP initiative. This was followed in March 2026 by Peter Andreoli of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, who toured the Anaklia construction site. Most recently, on March 30, 2026, Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a phone call with Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze to discuss Black Sea security, marking the first significant high level contact since the suspension of the bilateral strategic partnership in 2024.
For years, Georgia has promoted itself as the primary hub for the Middle Corridor, a trade route linking China and Central Asia to Europe. However, the TRIPP project introduces a potential alternative that utilizes Armenian and Turkish infrastructure. Lelo's leadership argues that aligning the Anaklia project with the current U.S. administration's regional priorities is essential to counteracting Georgia's perceived isolation. Kupradze compared the port's potential impact to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, describing it as a project in full alignment with U.S. strategic interests in the Caucasus.
