Armenia and Azerbaijan have vowed not to threaten force and to establish diplomatic relations in a US-brokered declaration
Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as part of a peace agreement initialed in Washington on Friday, according to the text of the document published by both nations.
The two post-Soviet states were locked in a territorial dispute over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh since the late 1980s. What was then a predominantly ethnic-Armenian-populated region violently seceded from Baku following the fall of the USSR. It had been a source of constant tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan for more than two decades, with multiple flareups of fighting before Baku managed to regain control of the region by force in 2023.
“The parties confirm that they do not have any territorial claims to each other and shall not raise any such claims in the future,” one of the new document’s articles says.
The 17-point agreement is aimed at establishing peace and full diplomatic relations between the two neighbors for the first time since gaining their independence. It states that Armenia and Azerbaijan will refrain from the use of force or the threat of force in bilateral relations. They will also not allow any third party to use their territories for staging an attack on one of them and will not deploy any third-party forces to their shared border.
Following the ratification of the deal, Baku and Yerevan also plan to officially exchange ambassadors and clear the way for further agreements in “respective areas of mutual interest.” They also plan to establish a bilateral commission ensuring the full implementation of the agreement and settle any future disputes through peaceful means.
The agreement was initialed by the foreign ministers of the two nations in Washington in the presence of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and US President Donald Trump. The three leaders also signed a joint declaration during what the American leader called a “historic peace summit.”
The declaration confirmed that the two nations were signing a peace agreement and urged both parties to ratify it, as well as to continue developing bilateral contacts. The document signed by the leaders also mentioned opening a key transport route in the region – the so-called Zangezur corridor. Armenia and the US are to work with “mutually determined third parties” to develop a framework for the project, it said.
The route will connect Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhichevan through a narrow strip of land located in southern Armenia, which runs along the country’s border with Iran.
Correction:The initial text of this article mistakenly stated that the declaration signed by the three presidents did not include the Zangezur corridor or any specific references to transport issues. It has now been corrected to better reflect the facts.
