August 2025 will go down in Azerbaijan’s history as the month when a new chapter was opened in relations with the United States and a long-awaited breakthrough was achieved in resolving the decades-long conflict with Armenia. President Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Washington at the invitation of U.S. President Donald Trump was not merely a protocol event but one whose significance extends far beyond the bilateral agenda. It brought together several major political milestones - strengthening a strategic partnership with one of the world’s key players, advancing the peace process in the South Caucasus, and consolidating new geopolitical realities in the region.
The roots of this rapprochement can be traced back to the U.S. presidential campaign in 2024. At the Global Media Forum in Shusha, held three months before the American elections, Ilham Aliyev, responding to a question about the political situation in the United States, offered a diplomatically measured yet substantive assessment of candidate Donald Trump. He highlighted Trump’s adherence to traditional values and the unique feature of his previous presidency - the absence of wars initiated under his leadership. This statement can be seen as a subtle signal of Baku’s readiness for active engagement with a future administration should American voters choose it.
Following Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, the two leaders engaged in regular exchanges - phone calls, correspondence, and coordination of a roadmap covering key areas of cooperation. The Washington visit became the culmination of this period, marked by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the governments of Azerbaijan and the United States to establish a Strategic Working Group for the development of the Strategic Partnership Charter.
The Working Group’s mandate is comprehensive. The sides agreed on three main areas of cooperation: strengthening regional connectivity, including energy, transport, and transit; promoting economic investment, particularly in digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence; and expanding security cooperation, encompassing defense supplies and joint counterterrorism efforts. For Azerbaijan, this means not only an inflow of technology and capital but also deeper integration into global supply chains and innovation networks.
Of particular symbolic importance was President Trump’s decision to suspend the application of Section 907 of the “Freedom Support Act,” imposed by the U.S. Congress in 1992 under the pretext of an alleged “blockade” of Armenia. For decades, this provision served as a tool of political pressure on Baku. Its temporary waiver under the George W. Bush administration was reversed by President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who reactivated it as a means of leverage. The August 2025 suspension sent a clear political signal that the new U.S. administration is committed to a genuine reset in bilateral relations.
An equally significant part of the visit was the Azerbaijan-Armenia peace agenda. In the presence of Donald Trump in Washington, a Joint Declaration was signed by Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan. Azerbaijan secured two key provisions: a joint appeal to the OSCE to dissolve the Minsk Group, which had lost its relevance after the Second Karabakh War, and constitutional amendments in Armenia to remove provisions containing territorial claims against Azerbaijan. This marked a substantial political shift, considering that Yerevan had until recently insisted that constitutional changes were an “internal matter.”
The declaration also enshrined the principle of unimpeded overland connectivity between mainland Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. In effect, the long-discussed Zangezur Corridor project received formal international recognition, with the United States and Armenia signing a separate agreement under which Donald Trump would act as guarantor of its operation. This greatly enhances the importance of a transport route capable of reshaping the region’s logistics map by linking the Caspian coast with Türkiye and, beyond it, European markets.
During the visit, the parties also initialed the agreed content of a peace treaty. The formal signing is expected after a constitutional referendum in Armenia in 2026. This step is comparable in significance to the 1978 Camp David Accords, when President Jimmy Carter’s mediation brought peace between Egypt and Israel.
The agreements reached were the result of Baku’s consistent strategy following its victory in the 2020 Patriotic War, when Azerbaijan restored control over its territories and forced Armenia to sign an act of capitulation. In subsequent years, localized military operations - including “Operation Retribution” to eliminate illegal armed formations - were carried out, and a border checkpoint was established in the Lachin Corridor. The culmination of the military phase was the 24-hour counterterrorism operation in September 2023, which restored Azerbaijan’s full sovereignty.
In parallel, a peace agenda was being shaped. In early 2022, Azerbaijan presented Armenia with “five basic principles” for a future treaty: mutual recognition of sovereignty, renunciation of territorial claims, non-use of force, border delimitation, and the opening of communications. Despite prolonged resistance, the 2023 counterterrorism operation shifted the negotiation dynamics, paving the way for the March 2025 preliminary peace arrangements.
The unsuccessful attempts by the Biden-Blinken administration, French President Emmanuel Macron, the European Parliament, various international human rights organizations, and the Armenian lobby in the United States to pressure Baku demonstrated that Azerbaijan firmly defends its positions, relying on its military, diplomatic, and economic achievements.
The Washington visit symbolically confirmed the new regional status quo, now internationally recognized. The signed documents and agreements not only codify current political realities but also create a solid foundation for long-term peace and cooperation. For Azerbaijan, this marks the transition from post-conflict recovery to a phase of active development and integration into global economic and technological processes.
Thus, August 2025 can be seen as a moment of strategic transformation: a country that achieved military victory has successfully converted it into a sustainable political peace while simultaneously strengthening its influence in the international system and securing new prospects for economic growth and regional stability.
By Tural Heybatov
