Spanish
Washington.- The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan signed this Friday at the White House an agreement sponsored by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, which establishes a roadmap to end almost four decades of clashes in the South Caucasus.
"Armenia and Azerbaijan commit to definitively cease fighting, open trade, allow travel, restore diplomatic relations, and respect mutual sovereignty and territorial integrity," declared Trump, accompanied by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, moments before signing the agreement.
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According to White House officials, this is a joint statement that lays the groundwork for a definitive peace agreement. One of the central points of understanding is the creation of a corridor called the Trump Route for Peace and International Prosperity (TRIPP) - formerly known as the Zanguezur Corridor - about 43 kilometers long through Armenian territory. This corridor will connect Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan enclave, allowing for unobstructed commercial transit. Although legal control of the territory will remain in the hands of Armenia, the United States will have the development rights over this strategic route. In addition, Trump signed bilateral agreements with both countries on economic cooperation, energy development, and infrastructure. The former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds since the late 1980s, when Nagorno-Karabakh —an Azerbaijani region with a predominantly Armenian population— seceded from Azerbaijan with the support of Armenia. Conversations to resolve the long-standing conflict began in 1994, after the signing of a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan following the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. For almost thirty years there were several attempts at rapprochement, but without these efforts finally taking effect. In fact, skirmishes were constant on the border. Following the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, which marks its fifth anniversary this September, the parties resumed their talks in an apparent attempt to resolve once and for all the oldest conflict of the former USSR. Trump has deployed a diplomatic strategy to resolve conflicts without hiding his aspiration to win the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition to the agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, its government has claimed to have facilitated truces between India and Pakistan; Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo; and Thailand and Cambodia; but has not yet managed to resolve the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Following the signing of the agreement this Friday, the Azerbaijani Prime Minister openly requested the Nobel Prize for Trump. The agreement also highlights the loss of influence of Russia as a mediator in the South Caucasus, a region in which it played a central role from the fall of the USSR in 1991 until the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, now being replaced by the United States.
