(MENAFN) US President Donald Trump hosted Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the White House for a landmark peace summit. The leaders signed a joint declaration to open and develop the crucial Zangezur corridor—a transit route linking Azerbaijan to its exclave Nakhichevan through southern Armenia near the Iranian border.

The corridor will be operated by American firms and named the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity,” a title Trump accepted with modesty.

Both Pashinyan and Aliyev praised Trump’s role, with Armenia’s leader calling the agreement a major success for the region and the world, solidifying Trump’s reputation as a peacemaker. Aliyev expressed gratitude for the promise of peace in the Caucasus.

Armenia and Azerbaijan, former Soviet states, have long contested the Nagorno-Karabakh region, an ethnic-Armenian enclave that declared independence in the early 1990s after conflict with Azerbaijan. The area has been a source of tension and fighting for decades until Azerbaijan regained control by force in 2023.

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