Azerbaijan and Armenia finally signed a peace deal in the White House after 35 years of conflict.
According to Reuters, the leaders of the two countries on Friday, August 8, signed the “historic” deal during a meeting with US President Donald Trump.
The two countries have agreed to normalise diplomatic relationships and boost bilateral economic ties.
Under the agreement the two countries will also reopen transport routes between countries and strengthen US influence in the region, giving it exclusive development access to a critical transit corridor in the South Caucasus, which will be named after Trump.
After signing the deal that Trump described as the “historic” event, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan shook hands.
The Republican president on Friday said, “Many tried to find a resolution. But with this accord, we’ve finally succeeded in making peace… 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.”
Without sharing any details Trump also revealed that the US will also sign separate deals with Azerbaijan and Armenia to boost cooperation in energy, trade and technology.
Both of the leaders praised Trump for facilitating the deal and vowed to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
For the unversed, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-long dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region in the former Soviet republic with a majority ethnic Armenian population.
