The president of the U.S. Donald Trump has invited leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to the White House for what he has called a “Historic Peace Summit”. The August 8 conference aims to officially put an end to decades of animosity between the two South Caucasus nations.
On his Truth Social account, Trump wrote, “I am very excited to host Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan for an official peace signing ceremony.” “Many have tried and failed in this conflict. We’ll triumph.
Following the collapse of post-Soviet peace negotiations, the summit represents the most ambitious U.S. initiative in the region. It comes after months of subdued shuttle diplomacy headed by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s personal envoy, who made many trips between Baku, Yerevan, and Nakhchivan.
A unified peace proclamation, the signing of a bilateral peace deal, the official withdrawal of both nations from the OSCE Minsk Group, and U.S.-backed commercial accords with each country are the four main outcomes of the negotiations, according to people familiar with the agenda.
Since the early 1990s, the protracted Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has influenced Armenia-Azerbaijani ties. Although Azerbaijan reclaimed the enclave at the end of the 2023 war, forcing more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to evacuate, no official peace treaty has been issued.
The Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), a planned transit corridor via southern Armenia to link Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave, is a key component of the anticipated agreement. To maintain Armenian sovereignty, the route would be non-militarized and run by a commercial consortium led by the United States. While some see it as a challenge to Russian and Iranian power, others believe it has the potential to revolutionize trade along the Middle Corridor.
Known as the Zangezur corridor in Azerbaijan, Baku has long called for such a link, but Armenia and Iran have resisted past suggestions. Instead of directly funding building, Washington would promote private sector investment in energy, digital infrastructure, and transportation under the TRIPP framework.
Separate bilateral U.S. agreements with Armenia and Azerbaijan pertaining to cross-border development and economic cooperation are also included in the anticipated agreements. Trump hailed both leaders for “doing the right thing” and referred to the agreements as a “win for the great people of Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
After arriving in Washington late on August 7, Aliyev met with Witkoff to go over the agenda for the summit. Despite posting a Bible passage on Facebook early on Thursday that read, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” Pashinyan has not publicly commented on the negotiations.
The agreements, if inked, would represent a rare diplomatic breakthrough—this time with the United States at the forefront—in an area where peace efforts have failed for decades.
