Rep. Luna Backs Bill to Repeal Section 907, Expand U.S. Influence in South Caucasus

The South Caucasus has emerged as a critical theater in great-power competition, yet American policy remains constrained by legislative architecture designed for a different era. Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, enacted in 1992 amid the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, restricts direct U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan—a provision that made sense in its original context but now functions as a self-imposed handicap in a region where China, Russia, and Iran actively compete for influence.

H.R. 6534, introduced in the 119th Congress, would repeal this restriction.

(https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/6534/text/ih).

The legislation reflects a straightforward proposition: American statecraft requires flexibility, and outdated legal constraints that limit U.S. leverage while adversaries operate freely serve no coherent strategic purpose.

Geographic Realities and Connectivity

Azerbaijan occupies uniquely consequential geography. It is the only nation bordering both Russia and Iran while controlling access across the Caspian Sea into Central Asia. This positioning makes Baku central to the Middle Corridor—the overland trade route connecting Europe to Asia that bypasses both Russian and Iranian territory.

(https://nationalinterest.org/blog/silk-road-rivalries/the-caspian-sea-is-open-to-the-united-states).

This is not abstract geopolitics. The Middle Corridor determines who shapes Eurasian trade standards, infrastructure investment, and digital connectivity. China's Belt and Road Initiative represents a systematic effort to dominate these networks. American analysts have warned that without updated engagement, Washington risks ceding this emerging architecture to Beijing by default

(https://nationalinterest.org/blog/middle-east-watch/azerbaijan-the-next-front-in-us-china-competition-215614).

Energy Security and Alliance Commitments

Azerbaijan already supplies natural gas to European markets through pipelines that reduce continental dependence on Russian energy—an objective that aligns with longstanding conservative priorities of strengthening allied resilience without expanding multilateral bureaucracies. The Caspian basin offers additional hydrocarbon and critical mineral resources essential for defense technologies and manufacturing supply chains.

Maintaining legal restrictions that complicate American commercial and security engagement in this space effectively subsidizes competitor access. As Forbes commentary has noted, allowing Section 907 to persist risks undermining diplomatic achievements by preserving an obsolete legal framework when consolidation should be the priority

(https://www.forbes.com/sites/wesleyhill/2025/09/24/will-a-legislative-relic-wreck-trumps-caucasus-energy-plans/).

The Trump Administration's Diplomatic Achievement

The August 2025 Washington Declaration and the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity represent tangible diplomatic progress—a peace framework between Azerbaijan and Armenia that American diplomacy helped broker. However, strategic analysis has observed that the 2025 National Security Strategy oddly underemphasized Eurasian connectivity despite these successes, cautioning that insufficient follow-through could squander hard-won gains.

(https://www.stripes.com/opinion/2025-12-16/trump-national-security-strategy-missing-link-eurasia-20110841.html).

Repealing Section 907 constitutes concrete follow-through. It signals to regional partners that cooperation with Washington yields durable benefits rather than symbolic gestures constrained by decades-old legislation that every administration has effectively acknowledged as counterproductive through repeated national security waivers.

Competitive Dynamics

The strategic logic is straightforward: a region squeezed between two adversarial powers, possessing significant energy resources and controlling critical transit routes, represents precisely the kind of geography where American engagement can deter hostile actors without requiring substantial military deployments. Conversely, American absence creates vacuums that competitors will fill.

H.R. 6534 represents precisely the kind of legislative action that translates strategic vision into operational reality—removing Cold War-era constraints to secure American interests in energy, trade, and great-power competition where it matters most.