US President Donald Trump will host Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the White House on August 8 for a landmark summit expected to yield a joint peace framework and the launch of a major US-led infrastructure project across the South Caucasus.

The summit is set to be the most significant US diplomatic intervention in the region since the collapse of post-Soviet mediation efforts.

According to US officials quoted by Reuters, the meeting will result in four key agreements: a joint declaration on peace, the initialling of a bilateral peace agreement, a letter of withdrawal from the OSCE Minsk Group, and memoranda of understanding (MOUs) between the US and both South Caucasus countries.

The centrepiece of Friday’s meeting is the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) — a US-Armenia initiative to construct a commercial transit route through southern Armenia, linking mainland Azerbaijan with its exclave of Nakhchivan. The agreement, which will grant the US exclusive long-term development rights, aims to transform a longstanding point of contention into a regional trade artery administered under Armenian law and operated by an American consortium.

The TRIPP would also nullify Iranian plans for a long term presence in the southern Caucasus, which has been a red line for Tehran’s rulers.

Armenian officials confirmed the transit route will be non-militarised, with security and logistics handled by private, top-tier commercial operators. The deal avoids the use of the term “corridor”, which is associated with Russian extraterritorial demands, and instead frames the route as part of the Middle Corridor strategy connecting Central Asia to Europe via the South Caucasus and Turkey.

“The idea is to unlock the region through commercial means and stabilise it by creating mutual economic interest,” a US official familiar with the talks said, according to Reuters.

As part of the summit, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan will sign a letter formally exiting the OSCE Minsk Group, the long-standing but increasingly defunct international mediation platform co-chaired by the US, France and Russia. Officials said the group is now seen as irrelevant given recent geopolitical shifts and the breakdown in Russia’s credibility as a neutral actor. This was Azerbaijan's major requirement as a precondition to peace.

Trump will also meet separately with the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders to sign bilateral MOUs, which US officials say are aimed at “relaunching” and “launching” respective diplomatic and economic partnerships. The documents are expected to cover digital infrastructure, energy cooperation, transport corridors and other areas not previously addressed in bilateral frameworks.

The agreements cap several months of US diplomatic engagement in the region, led by Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff. After Witkoff’s visit to Baku in late February 2025 and meetings with Aliyev, a series of follow-up visits by US delegations were conducted in Yerevan, Baku and Nakhchivan throughout March and April 2025.

The United Nations welcomed the White House summit, with Secretary-General António Guterres describing it as a “positive step” towards full normalisation. “Progress made in March on the draft peace document between the two countries was especially significant,” his spokesman said in an interview with Report.

From the Azerbaijani perspective, analysts and officials have framed the summit as a geopolitical victory. Commentators in Baku claim TRIPP will bypass Iran and Russia, reinforcing Azerbaijan’s access to Turkey while strengthening US influence in Eurasia. 

Sultan Zahidov, an analyst at the Centre for Analysis of International Relations, told Report the summit builds on the momentum from the Abu Dhabi meeting in early July. “There’s real progress in the peace process, and the US is now making its strategic interests clear in the Caucasus,” he said. Zaur Mammadov of the Baku Politologists Club said Armenia will face pressure at the summit to make binding commitments, as quoted by Report. He suggested that while a full peace treaty may not yet be signed, the parties are likely to agree to a protocol of intent or preliminary framework. 

Azerbaijani MP Sabinə Salmanova said the visit signifies a new phase in US-Azerbaijan relations. “The Trump administration understands the strategic importance of the South Caucasus in a way that the Biden administration did not,” she told local media. She said the agenda would likely focus on deepening security, energy, and transport partnerships, with TRIPP playing a central role.

Armenia has yet to publicly comment on the full terms of TRIPP, though domestic debates continue over sovereignty, legal control, and public opinion toward a transit link that will be operated by foreign entities.

The summit will be followed next week by the launch of technical working groups, which will begin discussions on route construction, customs harmonisation, legal coordination, and investment participation to make TRIPP operational.