Politics
Trump Negotiates Peace Agreement In 30-Year Conflict
President Donald Trump on Friday hosted a formal peace agreement between the nations of Azerbaijan and Armenia, formally ending a Soviet break-up conflict that has been raging in varying degrees of intensity for more than 30 years.
Trump greeted Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President traveled to the White House for the “historic” summit centered on ending the Nagorno-Karabakh, which erupted during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Armenia had occupied much of the disputed land in the territory after a conflict in the 1990’s, though Azerbaijan managed to recapture much of it in 2020.
Armenia ultimately negotiated a ceasefire, with third-party support from Russia, that ceded most of the territory in the disputed region to Azerbaijan. The conflict has flared up on numerous occasions since the 2020 conflict, which rendered the Armenian-controlled breakaway state of Artsakh effectively cut off.
Artsakh was formally disbanded in 2024, formally ending a millennia-long Armenian presence in the region.
President Trump has called for the two sides to come to the table in the early days of his second term. On Friday, an agreement was formalized when both sides met with Trump at the White House.
“President Aliyev AND Prime Minister Pashinyan will join me at the White House for an official Peace Signing Ceremony,” Trump announced Thursday evening. “The United States will also sign Bilateral Agreements with both Countries to pursue Economic opportunities together, so we can fully unlock the potential of the South Caucasus Region.”
Analysts familiar with the agreement noted that the two sides did not negotiate a formal peace treaty, but rather a letter of intent following more than one year of negotiations. Despite the lack of a formal agreement, the meeting is widely seen as a significant step towards lasting peace in the region and cooperation between the long-warring states.
“I believe they’ve had a significant position in this whole process,” Matias Perttula, director of Save Armenia, told Fox News. “We just returned from Armenia over the last week [where] we had several government meetings, including with the national security advisor, the president of Armenia and a couple other ministries, and from what we can tell the engagement from the Trump administration has been a lot more robust than the Biden administration.”
Both sides announced back in March that they had agreed to a framework for a peace deal, though remaining obstacles were highlighted when the two sides met in the UAE earlier this year. Azerbaijan wants Armenia to drop all references to the disputed territory in its constitution, though such a demand would require a national referendum.
“There needs to be a real consideration for the right of return for the 120,000 Armenian Christians that were forced off the lands of Nagorno-Karabakh that has been their ancestral homeland for centuries,” Perttula said. “I think that needs to be a key point in terms of formalizing this whole peace agreement.”
Trump has dedicated significant focus to negotiating settlements to world conflicts, from border disputes to the War in Ukraine, since returning to office in January.
The president is set to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska next week for the two leaders’ first face-to-face meeting since 2019. Trump has remained optimistic that a deal can be reached with cessation of land in Ukraine’s disputed east in exchange for security guarantees, though it remains to be seen how much Ukrainian President Zelensky could give up.
Trump has also negotiated ends to a number of border disputes, including a Spring flare-up between nuclear-armed powers in Pakistan and India, as well as the recent border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia. The administration is also reportedly in talks to renew talks with North Korea.
