Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a U.S.-facilitated peace agreement on Friday, 08 August 2025, in presence of President Donald Trump. The deal would boost bilateral economic ties and open up transport corridors after decades of conflict. Trump said the two countries had committed to stop fighting, open up diplomatic relations and respect each other’s territorial integrity.
The agreement includes exclusive U.S. development rights to a strategic transport corridor through the South Caucasus that the White House said would facilitate export of energy and other resources. An expert on Al Jazeera opined, “the value of South Caucasus has definitely been elevated in Eurasian connectivity, where the U.S. is playing catch up with China.”
Trump said restrictions had been lifted on defense cooperation between Azerbaijan and the U.S. – a development that could worry Moscow and Tehran.
Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been strained since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region, mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
The peace deal could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighbouring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran that has oil and gas pipelines, but been riven by closed borders and longstanding ethnic conflicts, says Reuters.
The UK, most Western nations and Turkiye have welcomed the peace agreement. Iran called it “an important step toward lasting regional peace”, but warned against any foreign intervention near its borders that could “undermine the region’s security and lasting stability”.
The deal between the two strategically important South Caucasus neighbours is a significant accomplishment for the Trump administration and expands the US influence in the region, mostly at the expense of Russia. U.S. officials said the deal would provide a basis for working toward a full normalization between the countries.
Senior U.S. administration officials said the agreement marked the end to the first of several frozen conflicts on Russia’s periphery since the end of the Cold War, sending a powerful signal to the entire region.
The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan praised Trump for helping to end the conflict and said they would nominate him for Nobel Peace Prize. Trump presents himself as a global peacemaker and claims credit for brokering a ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand and sealing peace deals between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He also claims credit for ending four-day war between India and Pakistan – a claim that India is uncomfortable with. President Trump will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15 to discuss a possible end to the war in Ukraine.
Disclaimer: The article has reference to open sources including Al Jazeera, BBC, Reuters, and CNN.
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