This bridge to peace is between Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. It will put an end to Azerbaijan-Armenia’s over three decades of conflict with an impasse to a final peace agreement.
Ilham Aliyev, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, nestled in the South Caucasus, foreign policy is based on conducting bilateral relations. Today, August 8, 2025 Azerbaijan and the United States officially entered a trilateral relationship.
Today’s event at the White House did not come as a surprise to me.
In May 7, 2018 I wrote and I quote: “Azerbaijan, Small but Calculated Steps toward Stability & Security: I see Azerbaijan coming out of a naive stage and finding its way in the world and the road it is paving is all so promising.
With sharp eyesight toward the west, and open eyes to the east in the back, Azerbaijan makes a relevant central country to the world. It is a country that needs its security to be taken most seriously, in all respects.”
In February 2020 I wrote and I quote: “Azerbaijan: Regional Force of Stability and Connectivity: As I see it, Azerbaijan has come out of a naiveté stage and is now finding its way in the world, and the road it is paving is all so promising.
“With sharp eyesight toward the west, and wide opened eyes to the east, Azerbaijan makes a relevant central country to the world and with that a country that needs to be taken most seriously, in all aspects.
“Azerbaijan, with the majority of its citizens being Muslims, is an island of secularism and an example to all countries. A country that promotes peace, security and tolerance is a balancing act difficult to follow, that should be followed.
“When drinking the Azerbaijani delicious traditional tea, something is injected into the person consuming the tea’s inner sense, making him or her grasp the fact that this country is heading toward being an effective influencing factor in global stability.”
I predicted what took place on August 8, 2025, at the White House with President Trump himself as the go between. President Trump saw what I saw years ago and today he sealed the deal.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev Takes The Stage To Thank President Trump At The White House
The signing of a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia is a historical event. This agreement is also the beginning of bilateral strategic relations between the U.S. and Azerbaijan, very much a historic event for Azerbaijan from a point of mutual investment, trade, energy, connectivity, AI, defense sales, transit, and cooperation on counter terrorism, all create opportunities for Azerbaijan’s ongoing development, and help to look to the future with great optimism.
President Trump also lifted the 1992 Section 907 of the United States Freedom Support Act restriction on military cooperation with Azerbaijan, imposed on Azerbaijan a year after Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
The peace agreement is a fact; the future is yet to be seen.
The Delusion Leading to Hostility Is Now Over
Azerbaijan is a leading South Caucasus nation from which Armenia could benefit greatly.
As I know, the Azerbaijani nation has yearned for peace for years. The Armenian people were entrenched in their separatist delusion that the Nagorno-Karabakh region, to which Azerbaijan has territorial integrity and to which Armenia held illegally, will remain theirs.
Today the cause of this conflict has come to an end as most of the Armenians in Armenia now support and welcome peace.
US Interests in the Region
While Mr. Aliyev was spending time in Washington, a Memorandum of Cooperation between SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state oil company, and ExxonMobil was signed.
A Strategic Working Group was established between Washington and Baku to draft a Charter on Strategic Partnership.
With President Trump having oversight of the Zangezur corridor, the White House bolsters its influence in the region.
The Bridge To Peace
Under the joint peace declaration, Washington will have 99 years leasing rights to develop the transit Zangezur corridor, which is a proposed transport route that aims to connect mainland Azerbaijan with its exclave, Nakhchivan, through Armenia’s Syunik Province that borders Iran.
This corridor will bypass Armenia’s central territory and will be rebranded the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP). The project will operate under Armenia’s legal jurisdiction while the United States will lease the land to a private U.S. company to oversee construction and management.
The corridor will establish a NATO passage to the Caspian Sea while Armenia will no longer share a border with Iran.
This is a significant achievement for Azerbaijan as the country would no longer be divided.
As for Armenia, this move will ensure stability for the country while in favor of the Trump administration.
The loss is for Iran as it makes sure the Ayatollah’s regime is more isolated and the state of Israel safer.
What to Expect
The peace agreement basic text to which Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed ends the negotiation phase and advances to arrive at a legally binding treaty.
In 2026 Armenia plans a national referendum to amend its constitution—an essential condition for the treaty to be finalized.
Azerbaijan and Armenia must find in themselves the courage and responsibility to turn the page of confrontation and to really reconcile in order to provide a safer future for both their countries’ future generations.
