The implementation of the goals announced in the declaration of Aliyev and Pashinyan is called into question

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not sign the peace agreement, but only initialed it, and most of the clauses contain vague wording. The feasibility of implementing the "Trump Route" project is also questionable, analysts said.

As "Caucasian Knot" wrote, at a meeting in Washington on August 8, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a declaration on the cessation of hostilities. US President Donald Trump said that the key issue that prevented the signing of a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been resolved, and this is the issue of the Zangezur corridor. The foreign ministers of the two countries have appealed to the OSCE with a proposal to dissolve the Minsk Group.

The text of the declaration signed at the meeting with US President Donald Trump was published by the offices of the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia on their websites.

The document consists of seven points.

"We and the President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, were present when the Foreign Ministers of the Parties initialed the agreed text of the Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia. In this regard, we recognized the need to continue further actions to achieve the signature and subsequent ratification of the Agreement and emphasized the importance of maintaining and strengthening peace between our two countries," the first paragraph says.

Also, Aliyev and Pashinyan noted in the document that they were present when the Foreign Ministers of the two countries signed an appeal to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on the completion of the OSCE Minsk process and related structures. "We call on all OSCE participating States to accept this decision," the document says.

In addition, Armenia and Azerbaijan "reaffirmed the importance of opening communication between the two countries <...> based on respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and jurisdiction of states." "These efforts should include unimpeded communication between the mainland of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic through the territory of the Republic of Armenia, which will provide mutual benefit to the Republic of Armenia in terms of international and domestic communication," the declaration emphasizes.

In the fourth paragraph of the declaration, Armenia agreed "to cooperate with the United States of America and third parties selected by mutual consent in developing a framework for the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) connectivity project in the territory of the Republic of Armenia" and reaffirmed its intentions "to make good faith efforts to achieve this goal in the shortest possible time."

The fifth paragraph recognizes "the need to chart a course toward a brighter future unbound by the conflicts of the past, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the Almaty Declaration of 1991." "We resolutely reject and exclude any attempts at revenge, now and in the future," the declaration says.

The parties then expressed confidence that "the Summit is a solid foundation for mutual respect and the promotion of peace in the region" and expressed gratitude to Donald Trump.

The White House "did not sign the peace agreement, it was only initialed," and "how many successfully initialed papers did not live to see their signing," noted leading researcher at the MGIMO Institute of International Studies, editor-in-chief of the International Analytics magazine Sergey Markedonov in his Telegram channel "Donskoy Kazak." "The document has seven points. And only four of them are meaningful, the other three are a set of diplomatically politically correct phrases about building a bright future without conflicts and gratitude to the US President,” the expert noted, emphasizing that there are still a number of unresolved issues on the way to signing: from the OSCE vote on the dissolution of the Minsk Group and amendments to the Armenian Constitution to territorial issues.

In the declaration, the parties thank Trump and say that peace is better than war, noted journalist Kirill Krivosheev on the air of the YouTube channel The Breakfast show. "Everything else is very vague and I cannot say that some decision has been made on which the fate of the region will depend and that it is impossible to abandon it. The Trump road project is, of course, interesting, but I am not sure that it can be implemented during Trump's presidency. And if it is not implemented in the next three years, then what will happen to it next? Now, a river flows and reeds grow on the site of this future road," he noted.

Recall that in January 2024, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev called the opening of the Zangezur corridor through Armenia to Nakhichevan a condition for opening the border with Armenia. Yerevan never committed to opening the Zangezur corridor to connect the main part of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan countered, calling Aliyev’s speech “a serious blow to the peace process.”

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