Armenia

Marking the first anniversary of the Washington summit, senior diplomats from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the US met in Washington.

The meeting was attended by Armenia’s acting Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan, Deputy Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov, and US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker.

Kostanyan praised President Donald Trump’s role in convening the August 2025 summit and in advancing peace between the two countries since, according to an Armenian readout.  During the meeting, the diplomats exchanged views on the positive developments achieved until now, regional infrastructure projects, and confidence-building measures. They also emphasised the importance of addressing existing humanitarian issues.

The meeting comes one year after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met at the White House alongside Trump. There, they initialed, but did not sign, their long-negotiated peace treaty and agreed on the Tump Route, a large infrastructure project that would connect Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan through Armenia’s Syunik province. Washington has positioned itself as the chief broker of the deal and presented the summit as a breakthrough after years of on-and-off talks following the 2020 and 2023 wars between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Over the past year, Yerevan and Baku held further talks to finalise and sign the peace treaty, alongside committing to steps on border delimitation, reopening regional transit links, and other confidence-building measures.

Earlier during the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio marked the anniversary by highlighting progress made on the Trump Route. The US, Armenia, and Azerbaijan shared a joint statement to mark the anniversary.

However, several disputed issues are still unresolved, including humanitarian matters and Azerbaijan’s demand that Armenia amend its constitution to remove language that Baku sees as a territorial claim.