U.S. President Donald Trump convened a peace summit on the White House on Friday with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan that is supposed to assist end many years of conflict and reopen key transportation routes while allowing the U.S. to seize on Russia’s declining influence within the region.
The 2 countries within the South Caucasus region will sign an agreement that may create a significant transit corridor that will likely be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, the White House said. That route will connect Azerbaijan and its autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, that are separated by a 32-kilometer-wide (20-mile-wide) patch of Armenian territory. The demand from Azerbaijan had held up peace talks up to now.
“It’s an extended time,” Trump said. “Thirty-five years they fought and now they’re friends they usually’re going to be friends an extended time.”
“The roadmap they’re agreeing to will construct a cooperative future that advantages each countries, their region of the South Caucasus and beyond,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Friday.
She added that the brand new transit corridor will “allow unimpeded connectivity between the 2 countries while respecting Armenia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and its people.”
Asked how he feels about lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Trump said “very confident” as he welcomed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to the White House on Friday afternoon.
Friday’s signing adds to the handful of peace and economic agreements brokered this 12 months by the U.S., while Trump has made no secret of his want to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in helping to ease long-running conflicts across the globe.
The peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda helped end the decadeslong conflict in eastern Congo, and the U.S. mediated a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, while Trump intervened in clashes between Cambodia and Thailand by threatening to withhold trade agreements with each countries if their fighting continued. Yet peace deals in Gaza and Ukraine have been elusive.
US takes advantage of Russia’s waning influence
The signing of a deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan, each former Soviet republics, also strikes a geopolitical blow to their former imperial master, Russia. Throughout the nearly four-decade conflict, Moscow played mediator to expand its clout within the strategic South Caucasus region, but its influence waned quickly after it launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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The Trump-brokered deal would allow the U.S. to deepen its reach within the region as Moscow retreats, senior U.S. administration officials said.
The Trump administration began engaging with Armenia and Azerbaijan in earnest earlier this 12 months, when Trump’s key diplomatic envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Aliyev in Baku and commenced to debate what a senior administration official called a “regional reset.”
Negotiations over who will develop the Trump Route — which is able to eventually include a rail line, oil and gas lines, and fiber optic lines — will likely begin next week, and at the least nine developers have expressed interest already, based on the senior administration official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. The Armenians suggested or not it’s named after the U.S. president, the official said.
Separate from the joint agreement, each Armenia and Azerbaijan will sign deals with the US meant to bolster cooperation in energy, technology and the economy, the White House said.
Trump previewed much of Friday’s plan in a social media post Thursday evening, saying Aliyev and Pashinyan would take part in a peace ceremony and sign economic agreements with the U.S. that may “fully unlock the potential” of the South Caucasus region.
“Many Leaders have tried to finish the War, with no success, until now, because of ‘TRUMP,’” Trump said on his Truth Social site.
Trump, Pashinyan and Aliyev gathered for joint signing ceremony within the State Dining Room. That peace declaration will likely be the primary signed by each Armenia and Azerbaijan because the end of the Cold War, based on the administration.
Among the many documents that will likely be signed is a letter that asks the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to dissolve its Minsk Group, established within the Nineteen Nineties and co-chaired by Russia, France and the U.S. to mediate the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. The White House said Friday that the group isn’t any longer relevant.
The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict has lasted for many years
The 2 nations were locked in conflict for nearly 4 many years as they fought for control of the Karabakh region, known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh.
The world was largely populated by Armenians in the course of the Soviet era but is situated inside Azerbaijan. The 2 nations battled for control of the region through multiple violent clashes that left tens of hundreds of individuals dead over the many years, all while international mediation efforts failed.
Most recently, Azerbaijan reclaimed all of Karabakh in 2023 and had been in talks with Armenia to normalize ties. Azerbaijan’s insistence on a land bridge to Nakhchivan had been a significant sticking point, because while Azerbaijan didn’t trust Armenia to regulate the so-called Zangezur corridor, Armenia resisted control by a 3rd party since it viewed it as a breach of sovereignty.
However the prospect of closer ties with the US, in addition to having the ability to move out and in of the landlocked nation more freely without having to access Georgia or Iran, helped entice Armenia on the broader agreement, based on U.S. officials.
Meanwhile, Russia stood back when Azerbaijan reclaimed control of Karabakh within the September 2023 offensive, angering Armenia, which has moved to shed Russian influence and switch westward. Azerbaijan, emboldened by its victory in Karabakh, also has develop into increasingly defiant in its relations with Moscow.
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