On August 11, Armenia and Azerbaijan published the text of an initialed but still unsigned peace agreement that the sides had pursued for many years. The 17-article document says Yerevan and Baku agreed to establish peace and to respect each other’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, internationally recognized borders, and political independence.
The breakthrough followed the August 8 meeting at the White House, where US President Donald Trump hosted Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. After the talks, the sides also confirmed their rejection of revanchism and the need for rapid ratification of the peace treaty.
“Now they are friends, and they will remain friends for a long time,” Trump said, adding that if problems arose, the two leaders could call him directly.
The agreement provides for the establishment of diplomatic relations, work on border delimitation and demarcation, exchanges of information on missing persons, and the expansion of economic, transit, humanitarian, and cultural cooperation. It also specifically commits the parties to combat intolerance, racial hatred, discrimination, separatism, extremism, and terrorism.
Olesya Vartanyan, an expert on South Caucasus conflicts, said the main outcome of the Washington meeting was a sharp reduction in the risk of a new war in the near term. At the same time, the leaders announced the creation of TRIPP, a transport project on Armenian territory meant to connect Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan and then Turkey. Reuters reported that nine companies, including three American ones, had already shown interest in the project.
An important political consequence was the further weakening of Russia’s role in the region. Although the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Kremlin welcomed the agreements reached in Washington, Moscow’s former position as the main mediator and security guarantor in the South Caucasus has clearly eroded. Against that backdrop, Trump gained another argument for his campaign around the Nobel Peace Prize, for which Pashinyan and Aliyev have publicly signaled their support.