WASHINGTON: Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a US-brokered peace agreement on Friday during a meeting with US President Donald Trump that would boost bilateral economic ties after decades of conflict and move them toward a full normalization of their relations.
The deal between the South Caucasus rivals – assuming it holds – would be a significant accomplishment for the Trump administration that is sure to rattle Moscow, which sees the region as within its sphere of influence.
“It’s a long time – 35 years – they fought and now they’re friends, and they’re going to be friends for a long time,” Trump said at a signing ceremony at the White House, where he was flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Trump said the two countries had committed to stop fighting, open up diplomatic relations and respect each other’s territorial integrity.
US President Donald Trump holds the hands of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as they shake hands between each other during a trilateral signing event, at the White House, in Washington, D.C., August 8, 2025.
The agreement includes exclusive US development rights to a strategic transit corridor through the South Caucasus that the White House said would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
Trump said the United States signed separate deals with each country to expand cooperation on energy, trade and technology, including artificial intelligence. Details were not released.
US officials believe a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan could prompt negotiations on the entry of Azerbaijan into the Abraham Accords, the series of normalization agreements that Trump brokered between Israel and four Muslim-majority countries in his first term.
He said restrictions had also been lifted on defense cooperation between Azerbaijan and the United States, a development that could also worry Moscow.
Both leaders praised Trump for helping to end the conflict and said they would nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
PM Shehbaz welcomes the peace deal
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomed the White House-brokered peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, praising both nation’s leadership and noting US President Donald Trump’s role in facilitating the deal.
Trump has tried to present himself as a global peacemaker in the first months of his second term.
The White House credits him with brokering a ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand and sealing peace deals between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Pakistan and India.
US President Donald Trump and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan gesture at the White House in Washington, DC, US, August 8, 2025. Photo: Reuters
