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U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House on Friday in an effort to broker a peace agreement between the two nations, which have been engaged in a decades-long territorial dispute.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev are both expected to attend separate meetings with Trump, according to two senior White House officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks have not been officially announced.
The officials said a framework for a peace agreement could potentially be announced following Friday's discussions, marking the latest in Trump's series of international diplomatic initiatives since taking office for his second term.
The conflict centers on the Karabakh region, which broke away from Azerbaijan in the late 1980s with Armenian support.
The mountainous territory, populated predominantly by ethnic Armenians, had been governed by Armenia for over three decades until Azerbaijani forces retook control in September 2023.
The military operation prompted approximately 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia, creating a humanitarian crisis that drew international attention. During his presidential campaign, Trump criticized his opponent Kamala Harris for doing "NOTHING as 120,000 Armenian Christians were horrifically persecuted and forcibly displaced."
"I will protect persecuted Christians," Trump wrote on Truth Social in October, pledging to "work to stop the violence and ethnic cleansing, and we will restore PEACE between Armenia and Azerbaijan."
The two former Soviet republics, which both gained independence in 1991, appeared to make progress toward reconciliation earlier this year when they agreed on a draft peace agreement text in March. However, subsequent negotiations have moved slowly despite talks held in Abu Dhabi in July.
Friday's White House meeting represents a significant escalation in U.S. diplomatic engagement in the South Caucasus region, where Russia has traditionally held influence as a regional power broker alongside Türkiye.
The peace initiative fits into Trump's broader foreign policy approach of positioning himself as an international mediator. In June, he celebrated a peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda during an Oval Office ceremony.
"In a few short months, we've now achieved peace between India and Pakistan, India and Iran, and the DRC and Rwanda, and a couple of others, also," Trump said during the June event.
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Trump's diplomatic efforts have earned him Nobel Peace Prize nominations from multiple world leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister, and Pakistani officials. The Nobel Peace Prize is scheduled to be awarded in December.
The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict has broader geopolitical implications for the region, affecting energy transit routes and regional stability in an area that serves as a corridor between Europe and Central Asia.
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