One year after the initialing of the peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the United States has cemented its lasting influence in the South Caucasus.

On Aug. 8, 2025, longtime enemies Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met alongside President Donald Trump as newly christened friends, ready to put aside decades of enmity between their nations. A central appeal of this peace deal was the promise of a new dawn of relations with the U.S., which has been realized over the past year.