President Donald Trump hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House Friday to sign what is reportedly the first peace deal both countries have signed since the end of the Cold War.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev called it a historic day.
“We will turn the page of standoff, confrontation and bloodshed and provide a bright and safe future for our children,” Aliyev said. “President Trump brings peace to the Caucuses, and we are grateful for that, and I’m sure that Armenia and Azerbaijan will find the courage and responsibility to reconcile.”
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been enmeshed in conflict for more than three decades over a disputed territory that belonged to Azerbaijan but had a large Armenian population. That territory broke away from Azerbaijan in the early 1980s, and Azerbaijan regained military control of it in 2023.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan echoed Aliyev’s sentiments.
“We’re laying a foundation to write a better story than the one we had in the past,” Pashinyan said. “The initiating of a peace agreement will pave the way to end the decades of conflict between our countries and open a new era based on the full respect for the sovereignty and territorial index integrity of each other.”
The deal also gives the U.S. a key role in the development of a transit corridor spanning the region that will likely be used for oil and gas pipelines, transportation, and a host of other purposes.
“This strategic partnership format embraces so many important areas,” Aliyev said, including “mutual investment, trade, energy, connectivity, transit, AI, defense, sales [and] counter terrorism.”
The agreement is the latest example of U.S intervention brokering peace between longtime rival nations.
The Trump administration seemingly backed Pakistan and India from the brink of war in May, stepping in after the nuclear-armed neighbors had traded cross-border attacks leaving dozens dead. India’s prime minister has said that Trump didn’t intervene, but Pakistan has nominated the president for the Nobel Peace Prize. In June, Trump hosted leaders from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda at the White House to sign a treaty the U.S. helped broker, after 30 years of bloodshed between the two countries. Cambodia’s president has also nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, after the American president reportedly intervened in a recent dispute with Thailand. Trump has also said the U.S. de-escalated a serious conflict between Serbia and Kosovo.
“We’ve only been here for six months. The world was on fire. We took care of just about every fire,” Trump said at the signing, adding that his administration is working on a peace agreement for Russia and Ukraine.
The transit corridor will be called the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a name Trump said he didn’t ask for but felt honored by.
Trump said his “highest aspiration is to bring peace and stability to the world” and expressed confidence in a new friendship between the Caucasus leaders.
