When did the U.S. host talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2025 and what agreements were signed?

1. The Washington summit: who met, when and what was witnessed

The summit took place at the White House on August 8, 2025, when President Trump hosted Prime Minister Pashinyan and President Aliyev for what U.S. and Azerbaijani official accounts termed a historic meeting in which the foreign ministers initialed the text of a peace agreement and the three leaders signed a joint declaration recording that initialing and committing to further steps toward ratification ^{[1] [2] [6]}.

2. The principal document: an initialled "Agreement on Establishment of Peace and Inter‑State relations"

The ministers of foreign affairs initialed a draft peace treaty titled the "Agreement on Establishment of Peace and Inter‑State relations" that, according to published texts, commits Yerevan and Baku to relinquish territorial claims against one another, to refrain from the use of force, and to respect international law — language that was made public when the deal’s text was published after the summit ^{[4] [7]}.

3. U.S. bilateral accords and memoranda of understanding signed or released

Alongside the trilateral declaration, the U.S. released and announced a package of bilateral memoranda of understanding with Armenia and Azerbaijan, including a Strategic Working Group toward a U.S.–Azerbaijan charter, an Armenia “Crossroads of Peace” capacity building partnership, and an energy security partnership, and the White House framed additional bilateral economic and defense‑related arrangements tied to the broader settlement ^{[5] [8] [9]}.

4. The contentious corridor and what the texts say about territory and transit

A particularly sensitive element is a transit link through southern Armenia connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave — variously described as the "Zangezur corridor" or a transport link — which the agreement and accompanying commentary treat as an Armenian‑sovereign route operated under Armenian law but developed with significant U.S. involvement, a provision that sources say was central to breaking the impasse ^{[10] [11] [7]}.

5. Political strings, demands and outstanding conditions for final ratification

Despite the Washington initialing and declaration, both sides and outside observers flagged important caveats: Azerbaijan has insisted on constitutional changes in Armenia to remove perceived territorial claims as a precondition for full signature and ratification, and officials warned that further "actions" remain necessary before the agreement becomes final ^{[4] [12]}. Analysts also noted that the U.S. role sidelines traditional regional actors (notably Russia), raising questions about implementation, guarantees and longevity of U.S. engagement ^{[11] [13]}.

6. What was signed versus what remains to be done — a pragmatic reading

The August 8 event produced an initialed peace agreement by foreign ministers, a trilateral joint declaration witnessed by President Trump, and multiple U.S. memoranda of understanding with each capital that together create a framework for normalization and connectivity, but the core peace treaty required further domestic legal steps and ratification, and observers cautioned that operational details — border delimitation, corridor administration, security guarantees and constitutional changes in Armenia — would determine whether the initialing at the White House translates into durable peace ^{[2] [4] [5] [11]}.