Washington (EFE).- Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a United States-brokered agreement at the White House on Friday aimed at ending nearly four decades of conflict in the South Caucasus.
The deal, witnessed by United States President Donald Trump, lays out a roadmap for a permanent cessation of hostilities, the reopening of trade and travel, the restoration of diplomatic ties, and mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“Armenia and Azerbaijan commit to cease fighting for good, open trade, allow travel, restore diplomatic relations, and respect each other’s sovereignty,” Trump said, flanked by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev moments before the signing.
White House officials described the joint declaration as a foundation for a comprehensive peace treaty, marking what could be a historic shift in one of the post-Soviet world’s most intractable disputes.
A central provision of the deal is the creation of the Trump Route for Peace and International Prosperity (TRIPP), formerly known as the Zanzegur Corridor, a 43-kilometer (26.7 miles) route across Armenian territory that will connect Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave, enabling unimpeded commercial transit.
Although Armenia will retain legal control of the land, the US will hold development rights over the corridor.
Trump also signed separate bilateral agreements with both countries covering economic cooperation, energy development, and infrastructure projects.
The two former Soviet republics have been locked in conflict since the late 1980s, when Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani region with a majority Armenian population, broke away with Yerevan’s support.
After the first Nagorno-Karabakh War ended with a 1994 ceasefire, sporadic border clashes persisted for nearly three decades.
The second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020 reintegrated tensions, but talks resumed in recent years with renewed urgency.
Friday’s deal follows five years of negotiations since that war, in what Trump called “a decisive step to end the oldest conflict of the former USSR.”
Trump has sought to expand Washington’s diplomatic footprint, openly pursuing a Nobel Peace Prize.
His administration has also claimed credit for mediating ceasefires between India and Pakistan, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Thailand and Cambodia, though it has failed to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Following the signing, Aliyev publicly called for Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Analysts note that the agreement underscores Russia’s diminished role as a power broker in the South Caucasus, a position it held from the fall of the USSR in 1991 until being sidelined after the 2020 war.
er/seo/mcd