Armenian and Azerbaijani Leaders to Meet with Donald Trump in Washington for High-Level Peace Talks

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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will travel to the United States for a two-day visit on 7–8 August 2025, where he is set to take part in a trilateral summit in Washington alongside Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and former U.S. President Donald Trump. According to the Office of the Armenian Prime Minister, the meeting will focus on promoting peace, regional prosperity, and economic cooperation between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

This high-level gathering comes on the heels of a tentative peace agreement signed in March 2025 that formally ended decades of conflict between the two South Caucasus nations. However, despite the ceasefire, significant political and humanitarian issues remain unresolved—chief among them, Azerbaijan’s ongoing demands and the displacement of ethnic Armenians from the Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2023.

While the peace deal marked a turning point, Armenia’s internal political climate has grown increasingly volatile. Prime Minister Pashinyan’s approval ratings had dropped to 11.5% by May 2025, a decline attributed to his government’s handling of the post-conflict transition. The exodus of ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh drew sharp criticism from international human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, which labelled the displacement as a case of ethnic cleansing—a claim that Azerbaijan denies.

The summit in Washington signals renewed international attention to the South Caucasus region, which holds strategic significance due to energy corridors such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. These routes are vital for transporting Caspian Sea oil to global markets, making regional stability a priority for global powers.

Alongside the trilateral talks, separate bilateral meetings are also expected between former President Trump and both Aliyev and Pashinyan. The diplomatic engagement underscores Trump’s return to the international stage, this time as a mediator. His involvement departs from the traditional U.S. approach to diplomacy, especially considering that no prior public indication of such a summit existed in official schedules released in 2024.

This development reflects a broader shift in U.S. foreign policy positioning, particularly at a time when Western influence in the region has waned amid growing Russian and Turkish engagement. Whether this meeting leads to concrete breakthroughs or serves as a symbolic gesture remains to be seen, but the stakes are high. The outcome may shape the next phase of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations and broader stability in the South Caucasus.