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In a move hailed as a potential end to decades of conflict, the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia formalized an agreement Friday at the White House, under the auspices of President Donald Trump.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan engaged in a handshake following President Trump’s declaration of the event as “historic.”
“It’s been a long time coming,” Trump stated, referring to the accord that is set to reopen vital transport corridors between the two nations, concurrently bolstering U.S. influence in the region.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have a history of conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan, dating back to the 1980s and 1990s, with intermittent outbreaks of violence since.
President Trump announced Friday that Armenia and Azerbaijan have committed to a permanent cessation of hostilities, along with the restoration of travel, business, and diplomatic ties.
“We are today establishing peace in the Caucasus,” declared Aliyev. “We lost a lot of years being preoccupied with wars and occupation and bloodshed.”
Pashinyan characterized the signing as a “significant milestone” in the relationship between the two countries.
“Thirty-five years they fought, and now they’re friends and they’re going to be friends a long time,” Trump remarked during the event.
The White House revealed that the agreement includes U.S. assistance in constructing a major transit corridor, to be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.
This route will connect Azerbaijan with its autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, which is geographically separated by Armenian territory. Aliyev has previously called for Armenia to provide a rail corridor to Nakhchivan.
Armenia has sought control over the route, while the Azerbaijani leader has in the past threatened to seize the corridor by force, an issue that has stymied previous peace negotiations.
Both leaders expressed their gratitude to President Trump and his team throughout the meeting. “President Trump, in six months, did a miracle,” Aliyev stated.
Trump added that he had also signed bilateral agreements with both nations to expand energy and technology trade.
The U.S. president has actively pursued peace agreements between various warring nations during his second term.
Friday’s summit also represents an expansion of U.S. influence in the region, potentially at the expense of Russia, which has historically played the role of power broker and mediator for over a century.
Most recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been the primary mediator in the conflict. The previous agreement signed by Aliyev and Pashinyan was brokered by Putin.
With Trump now bringing the two countries together, Putin’s role is significantly diminished. While Moscow has attempted to integrate its interests into peace talks, both sides opted for an American-led resolution.
The announcement on Friday preceded Trump’s planned meeting with Putin in Alaska next week.
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