Washington, 9 August 2025 (dpa/MIA) - US President Donald Trump on Friday said that long-time adversaries Armenia and Azerbaijan had committed to peace.

"We've finally succeeded in making peace," Trump said at a signing ceremony with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the White House.

"Armenia and Azerbaijan are committing to stop all fighting forever, open up commerce, travel and diplomatic relations and respect each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Trump said.

"It's a long time, 35 years they fought and now they're friends, and they're going to be friends for a long time."

All three leaders signed the joint declaration, which Aliyev decribed it as an initial step towards a peace deal.

Aliyev and Pashinyan shook hands, smiled and praised Trump, whom they both said at the White House event they would recommend for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Pashinyan spoke of a "significant milestone in Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. We are laying the foundations for a better story than the one we had in the past."

Aliyev went a little further: "We are today establishing peace in the Caucasus."

"I am sure that Armenia and Azerbaijan will find the courage and responsibility to reconcile," Aliyev continued, saying the agreement would lead to "eternal peace in the Caucasus."

Trump said the agreement was flanked by bilateral deals with both countries "to expand cooperation in energy trade and technology, including AI."

'Trump Route'

The White House event launched the project known as the "Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity" (TRIPP), a trade route through southern Armenia that would give Azerbaijan unimpeded access to its autonomous exclave of Nakhchivan.

The exclave is cut off from the heartland of Azerbaijan - it is surrounded by Armenia, Iran and Turkey.

Negotiations for this new route, intended to boost trade, transit and energy transport in the South Caucasus, are set to begin next week, according to senior US officials.

Trump on Friday declared that Armenia is entering into an "exclusive partnership with the United States to develop this corridor, which could extend to up to 99 years."

"We anticipate significant infrastructure development by American companies," Trump added. "They're very anxious to go in to these two countries and they're going to spend a lot of money."

Although the trade route would run through Armenia, the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity will be preserved, senior US officials said before the White House event.

According to the US, the new trade route is also a building block for a peace treaty, which Pashinyan and Aliyev have been negotiating for some time.

The project revives the long-debated idea of the so-called Zangezur Corridor, which has been a source of geopolitical tension for years, cutting across Armenian territory and potentially disrupting Iran's direct land link to Armenia.

US officials said safeguards would be in place to ensure conflict-free use of the road.

Expert: Russia's defeat in the South Caucasus

For Russia, long seen as Armenia's protector but now absorbed in its war in Ukraine, analysts have described Trump's initiative as a strategic defeat.

Kremlin-linked political scientist Sergei Markov called it "a major victory for the US and personally for Trump," and a loss for both Russia and Iran. France and the European Union, he said, would also have preferred to broker such a deal themselves.

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan remain high. The Christian-majority Armenia and Muslim-majority Azerbaijan have fought for decades over Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority-Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan.

Armenia occupied large parts of its neighbour in the 1990s, but Azerbaijan, buoyed by oil wealth, regained territory in 2020 and recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh in a rapid 2023 offensive.

The defeat plunged Armenia into political crisis, with more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fleeing to Armenia and Baku continuing to exert military pressure.

The signing of a peace agreement has been planned for some time. However, according to Armenian sources, Aliyev is demanding that Yerevan change its constitution and drop its claims to Karabakh. Pashinyan, whose actions have repeatedly triggered protests in Armenia, has not been able to deliver on this so far.