US Vice President JD Vance will travel to Azerbaijan and Armenia next month, President Donald Trump has said, months after the two countries signed a peace agreement in Washington.
Trump said on Friday that Vance will travel to the countries to "advance the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity," a peace agreement he struck between the two South Caucasian nations in August.
"We will strengthen our strategic partnership with Azerbaijan, a beautiful Agreement for Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation with Armenia, Deals for our Great Semiconductor Makers, and the sale of Made in the USA Defense Equipment, such as body armor and boats, and more, to Azerbaijan," he wrote on social media.
Rivals to partners
He thanked Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for upholding a peace agreement that was signed in August.
The deal followed nearly four decades of war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Armenia’s invasion of the mountainous Karabakh region, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.
Under the agreement, the countries relinquished all claims to each other's territory and are required to refrain from using force against one another and pledge to respect international law.
Trump on Friday thanked the leaders of the two countries for upholding the agreement, saying there was now "Prosperity and Peace."
Earlier this week, Armenia announced it will integrate its energy systems with Azerbaijan to facilitate the import and export of electricity as part of a US-backed project.
Ties between Baku and Yerevan have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.
In the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages, and settlements from Armenian occupation during 44 days of clashes.
The war ended with Baku’s victory and talks for normalisation of ties.
'Close chapter' on war
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Tuesday that his country and Armenia made a joint decision to close their chapter of conflict.
"It was a joint decision by (the) Armenian and Azerbaijani leadership to close that chapter (of war) and to see the opportunities for peace," Aliyev told a panel session at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
During the panel, which was also attended by Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan, Aliyev criticised international institutions for their inability to resolve the three-decade conflict between their countries, responding to a question on the current state of multilateralism.
Noting how numerous resolutions were passed on the issue, including by the UN Security Council and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), he said none were effective.
"All of them did not materialise until we took (the) situation into our hands, and we did it. We restored justice, international law, our sovereignty, territorial integrity, and then we achieved peace," he said.
