U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the long-standing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan appears to be nearing a “successful conclusion,” crediting American diplomatic efforts for the progress made.
Speaking during a press conference on Monday, July 14, following his meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House, Trump said: “And we’ve solved another one. One that we just seem to have, Armenia and Azerbaijan. It looks like that’s going to come to a conclusion, a successful conclusion.”
He made the remark while listing several international conflicts in which he claimed U.S. diplomacy played a decisive role, including tensions between India and Pakistan, and between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Trump emphasized the strategic use of trade leverage in encouraging peaceful resolutions.
“India and Pakistan would’ve been in a nuclear war within another week the way that was going. We did that through trade. I said, ‘We’re not going to talk to you about trade unless you get this thing settled’, and they did,” he said, implying a similar approach has been applied to the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process.
Trump did not elaborate further on the specific U.S. role in the current negotiations. His comments, however, come as Washington has stepped up its engagement in the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Earlier today, in a parallel development, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack revealed that Washington has proposed leasing control of a 32-kilometer transport route through Armenia’s Syunik Province, referred to by Azerbaijan as the “Zangezur Corridor”, for 100 years. The proposal aims to ensure shared access while maintaining transparency through a neutral U.S. logistics operator.
However, Armenia has pushed back against suggestions of third-party control or the use of the term “Zangezur Corridor,” which it views as an irredentist claim on its sovereign territory. The Armenian government reaffirmed multiple times that it is not considering “outsourcing control” of any part of its territory.
Earlier, on July 10, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held direct talks in Abu Dhabi. The meeting began with both delegations and continued in a one-on-one format, lasting more than four hours. Both sides described the talks as serious and constructive, with substantive discussions focused on border delimitation, the so-called Zangezur Corridor, and initialing a final peace agreement.
