President Donald Trump announced on 8/8/2023 that, "Armenia and Azerbaijan have committed to ending all hostilities permanently, opening trade, travel, and diplomatic relations, and respecting each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity,".
Trump hosted the summit with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the White House. The leaders signed a US-brokered peace agreement.
"They've been at each other's throats for a long time, 35 years, but now they're going to be friends and stay that way for a long time", Trump said, adding that the US would also lift restrictions on military cooperation with Azerbaijan.
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The president of Azerbaijan (left), President Trump, and the prime minister of Armenia at the White House on 8/8/2023. Photo: AP |
The president of Azerbaijan (left), President Trump, and the prime minister of Armenia at the White House on 8/8/2023. Photo: AP
Trump said the US signed separate agreements with each country to expand cooperation on energy, trade, technology, and AI. Details of the cooperation were not released.
Both Aliyev and Pashinyan praised Trump for his role in ending the conflict and said they would nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The decades-long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan centers on the Nagorno-Karabakh region. In 9/2023, Azerbaijan launched a military campaign to reclaim Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian-backed separatists, ending nearly three decades of territorial division. Three months later, Armenia and Azerbaijan issued a joint statement of intent to negotiate a peace treaty.
The two countries have since held several rounds of talks, including one in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last month, but no breakthrough was achieved until the meeting hosted by Trump.
The Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement, if it holds, would be a significant achievement for the Trump administration. Trump has recently been actively involved in global peacemaking efforts, facilitating several agreements between nations in conflict, such as the ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand, and the peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Ngoc Anh (AFP, Reuters)
