Since the mid-20th century, the US has acted as a strategic power in the international relations system and is considered one of the main political centers for wars, coups, security crises, and peace negotiations. Throughout its history, Washington has been the initiator of many conflicts, an open supporter of one of the parties, a victor over its ideological-political rivals through military means, and the leader of an international coalition that conducted an anti-terror war for nearly twenty years; currently, tensions with Iran also persist. However, it is a global fact that it maintains the status of a state that brings long-standing opposing nations to the negotiating table and acts as the primary guarantor of global security.
The occupants of the White House, changing every four or eight years, have exercised America’s exceptional power in world politics through different means in accordance with their own foreign policy philosophies. It is undeniable that Donald Trump’s main mission during his second presidential term was global peace diplomacy. It is a completely logical behavior for the US leader to present the cessation of eight different conflicts or the prevention of armed clashes of varying scales under his direct initiative, participation, and guarantee, to make the results the central theme of his political image, and to present the state course he pursued as a new model of American leadership. The South Caucasus is among the successful eight. Gaining an exceptional place in overcoming the Armenian-Azerbaijani enmity that lasted for more than two centuries and succeeding in having the parties sign a peace treaty—a paraffined peace document—in Washington on August 8, 2025, is not only a step ahead of the three imperial successors in the region—Russia, Iran, and Turkey—but also an unparalleled historical achievement for his personal biography.
The conflicts resolved in the official presentation of the White House include Cambodia–Thailand, Kosovo–Serbia, Congo–Rwanda, Pakistan–India, Israel–Iran, Egypt–Ethiopia, Azerbaijan–Armenia, and the Israel–HAMAS/Gaza war. Official Washington calls the list the results of a “peace through strength” policy, but the legal and political degree of the agreements reached in individual conflicts varies, and in some cases, the phrase “end of war” is controversial. The Azerbaijan–Armenia peace is also one of the important links in the new international security architecture.
However, against the backdrop of the US leader’s speech in the Oval Office on September 4, where he said, “I ended eight wars, …but I get no credit for it,” how much political truth is there in his grievance?
The official documents, phone calls, speeches of heads of state, and social media posts of the last two years point to the South Caucasus as the address of fair appreciation. Aliyev did not thank Trump for his peace policy only at the White House on August 8, 2025. Objective and courageous assessment began long before the Washington summit, then became more comprehensive on various international platforms, and turned into the new political content of Azerbaijan–US relations—the cornerstone of the Strategic Charter, and the leitmotif of J.D. Vance’s visit to our country. Trump, in turn, has rightly mentioned President Ilham Aliyev’s name openly many times, called him a “visionary leader,” a “strong and smart person,” thanked him, and kept their relationship above the framework of interstate protocol.
A remarkable aspect of Aliyev’s attitude toward Trump is that he did not choose a political lexicon suitable for the new owner of the White House after the election results were known. In the letter sent by Trump on November 6, 2024, the support he provided to the strengthening of Azerbaijan–US relations, energy security, and cooperation in the field of international security during his first presidency was especially emphasized. In a phone call on November 25, he went further and stated his belief that Trump’s activities would play a more important role in ensuring security in the world. Trump thanked Aliyev for this and emphasized the importance of developing cooperation between the two countries together.
The depth and intensity of Trump’s attitude toward Aliyev are not measured by the emotional atmosphere of the meetings, because there is concrete statistics showing the state and political results of mutual respect. In the last 30 years, no US leader has shown as much open sympathy, strong support, and high partnership spirit to the President of Azerbaijan as the current one. During the first nine months since Trump took office, he expressed his respect for Aliyev in writing and in speeches 7 times on his social media account and 14 times on diplomatic platforms and in political messages. Trump mentioned the names of Azerbaijan and Armenia 16 times in his speeches. While protocol respect between presidents is common in international relations, the consistent repetition of the same head of state’s name, leadership qualities, and the peace reality created by his country in the American President’s social media accounts, political speeches, and speeches on international platforms is an indicator of a political relationship that exceeds the boundaries of diplomatic courtesy.
Trump’s special respect for Aliyev is not limited to geopolitical interests; here lies the personality of the President of Azerbaijan, the commonality of strategic views, and the “Karabakh Victory that shook global layers.” The Washington Summit is an event of recognition of the legitimacy of the historical Victory, and the respect for Aliyev is due to his political determination and the scale of his personality. The current US administration values leaders who demonstrate strategic leadership ability, which is why continuous and open sympathy is shown to a head of state who changed a two-century reality and made a new geopolitical revolution.
During the previous President Biden’s term, after the 44-day war, they made sanction initiatives, daily media attacks, and pressured our country under the guise of “protecting Christian religious monuments in Karabakh.” If they had remained in power, they would have blamed the national army for attacking Khankendi.
During the Trump administration, US–Armenia relations have not been directed against official Baku. Although some Western leaders remained neutral, the President’s envoy Steve Witkoff called Aliyev, who gave the order for the victorious, advancing army not to attack Yerevan, a “model of a wise and responsible leader.”
An interesting dialogue took place during the first face-to-face meeting of the two leaders in the White House. Trump reminded Aliyev that “you said good words about me even before we won the election.” Aliyev replied: “Yes, before you won.” Subsequently, it was a commendable event that he said those words were sincere and that Trump had gained the sympathy of our people and the international community with the work he did during his first presidency. Even before the elections, in his answer to a question at the Shusha International Forum, Aliyev had foresightfully stated which leader should win for peace in the world.
Trump also took effective steps toward stopping the application of the 907th amendment, which has remained a political burden on Azerbaijan–US relations since 1992. The White House’s opinion and reconsideration of traditional decisions are indicators of our country’s increasing geopolitical weight.
August 8, 2025, was a diplomatic summit that holds an exceptional place in the history of the world and the region we are located in. For the first time in centuries of history, the President of Azerbaijan said, “President Trump is bringing peace to the Caucasus and we are grateful to him for this,” and called the event a symbol that will remain forever in the memory of nations. Trump presented Aliyev as a “visionary leader,” and contrary to many claims, when he heard that he had been successfully leading his country for 22 years, he characterized him as a “strong and smart person.”
The fact that the two leaders stood in the same political position on the issue of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty showed that the Victory did not remain only on a national scale, but became one of the important political pillars of the Baku–Washington rapprochement.
After the historic meeting, Aliyev–Tramp relations moved to a new stage: the American President, who mediates peace in the South Caucasus, began to see Azerbaijan as one of the partners of broader peace diplomacy.
On January 21, 2026, Aliyev accepted Trump’s invitation for Azerbaijan as a founding state to the Peace Council. In his letter, the head of state, who again expressed his gratitude for his “visionary leadership and peace-building efforts,” declared that Azerbaijan joined the mission to end the Gaza conflict, contrary to the cautious position shown by many.
A day later, the two leaders met again in Davos. The previous agreements had already yielded results – the export of Azerbaijani oil products to Armenia, grain transit, Zangezur connection, TRIPP, and the Peace Council were on the same agenda in the negotiations. The agenda of Azerbaijan–US relations had expanded from peace in the South Caucasus to initiatives in the Middle East and regional connections.
US Vice President J.D. Vance’s visit to Baku on February 10 showed that the relations were not just about personal closeness between the two presidents. The second person of the world’s number one state conveyed Trump’s best wishes to Aliyev, expressed his gratitude for the partnership, and openly criticized the previous administration’s Azerbaijan policy. Aliyev called the last six months an extraordinary period for the two countries’ relations.
Nine days later, the first meeting of the Peace Council in Washington carried more meaning than official communiqués. While talking about how he solved eight conflicts, Trump turned to Aliyev, who was sitting in a special row in the hall. He recalled the conflict that had lasted for more than thirty years, called the two leaders “tough but good people,” and talked in his own unique style about how he brought them closer together in the White House. “Do you think it was easy? It wasn’t easy,” Trump asked Aliyev to stand up in front of the audience and called the peace achieved between Azerbaijan and Armenia one of the events he would never forget.
The scene of mutual respect gives a concrete answer from the South Caucasus to Trump’s later thought, “I stopped eight conflicts, they didn’t give me the credit I deserved”: deep sympathy from Baku has been conveyed in the highest language and the value has not been a one-time gesture – it has been of a continuous nature and has been repeated 12 times.
Trump sent the memorandum on the repeal of the 907th amendment to Aliyev as a souvenir in the spring of 2026 with his personal note and kind words. Aliyev expressed his “great respect” for the continuous gesture by openly thanking him on June 1.
On May 26, the letter sent by Trump on the occasion of Azerbaijan’s Independence Day, in addition to listing the institutional results of the relations, presented Aliyev in a different status in his attitude—as Washington’s regional strategic partner.
On July 13, 2026, in Shusha, Aliyev himself explained the political content of the exceptional relationship more openly. He said he saw the difference between Trump and previous US administrations in his approach to peace. In the President’s opinion, previous mediation mechanisms had tried to freeze the conflict, while Trump managed to help create a framework that made peace possible by entering the process at the final stage of negotiations. Aliyev thanked Trump, Steve Witkoff, and Arye Lightstone separately.
Subsequently, political communication moved to another plane. Trump shared the “Man of Peace” assessment Aliyev made about him in Shusha. Responding to him separately on July 16, he called Trump’s role in the Azerbaijan–Armenia peace “irreplaceable” and repeated the words “You are truly a Man of Peace.” Such consistent posts, unlike classic diplomatic correspondence, directly demonstrate the inter-leader relationship to the world.
Finally, on August 8, 2026, on the first anniversary of the Washington summit, Aliyev’s renewed thanks to Trump and his high appreciation for his hosting of the summit and contribution to the peace agenda in a phone call have already become an indelible fact of history. Trump, in turn, highly appreciated Aliyev’s role in the peace process. In the extensive letter sent on the turning day of the political calendar, Aliyev listed what happened within a year in the language of results: export of Azerbaijani fuel to Armenia, removal of transit restrictions, start of trade, TRIPP, Strategic Partnership Charter, and the suspension of the 907th amendment. He stated that Azerbaijan–US relations had reached their highest point in their 34-year diplomatic history.
Personal trust turned into institutional partnership in a short time. The result gained for the US is very important. Trump raised Washington’s role to a new level in the South Caucasus, where Russia was the dominant power for decades, which Iran considered its historical sphere of interest, and where the European Union had been mediating for a long time. The turn in the attitude toward Azerbaijan is also one of the important results of successful policy.
Thus, against the idea that “no one gave Trump credit,” there stands a completely different picture that Azerbaijan has formed over two years. Aliyev’s worthy attitude has been openly expressed on various official platforms, an official appeal has been made to the Nobel Committee, and Trump’s political courage and peace initiatives have been highly appreciated. However, the true measure of appreciation is not the number of words, but the results of the new geopolitical revolution.
The peace created in the Caucasus is a continuation of Ilham Aliyev’s historical services. The result achieved in the White House is an expression of the acceptance of the changed regional reality in the world’s number one political center. The Shusha Victory is a contribution to regional peace and a new security architecture, and the Baku–Washington line is a path leading to a greater geopolitical change than an exchange of diplomatic correspondence. The greatest status, name, title, and appreciation is the love of the people for the leaders who put an end to centuries-old enmity!
Müəllif: Zahid Oruc