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Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
With Armenia and Azerbaijan, Trump has proven he can broker peace
For over three decades, my country Azerbaijan and our neighbour Armenia have been locked in one of the world's most intractable conflicts. The last 30 years have seen two major conflicts and many smaller skirmishes. During this time, consecutive rounds of peace talks have failed and failed again. But this month in Washington the stars aligned. Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed what the world thought was impossible: an agreement. This may not have happened had it not been for two factors: first, that Azerbaijan had already restored its sovereign borders after a generation when a fifth of its territory was under Armenian occupation and second, because Donald Trump was back in the White House. President Trump welcomed President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia at the White House where they signed a declaration witnessed by President Trump reiterating and reinforcing mutual, irreversible commitment to peace and normalisation, while the two country's foreign ministers initialled the text of the future peace agreement. Azerbaijan and the United States agreed to set up a working group to prepare a strategic partnership charter and ExxonMobil and Socar, Azerbaijan's State Oil Company, inked an MOU on exploration. Adding a great measure of symbolism, President Trump signed a waiver to the infamous Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which prohibited U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan, a sore point in bilateral Azerbaijan-U.S. relations since 1992 and a glaring example of a counterproductive, self-defeating piece of legislation driven by narrow special interests at the expense of wider U.S. objectives in the region. Another significant step was a joint letter signed by the two foreign ministers requesting the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to abolish its long-defunct Minsk Group, a mediating body co-chaired by France, Russia and the United States, which has, over decades, firmly established its absolute inability to produce any progress towards peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The importance of this joint letter should not be underestimated as it clearly demonstrates that Azerbaijan and Armenia have left the post-Soviet nightmare of never-ending, externally driven conflict-management behind and are entering the era of normalcy. Moreover, the two nations have fully assumed responsibility for their bilateral relations, exactly as neighbours and sovereign states should. Azerbaijan has long insisted on ending the Minsk Group because that would reflect a commitment to a peaceful future for our region rather than entanglement in the legacy of past conflicts. In fact, as acknowledged by the Armenian leadership, it was Azerbaijan's restoration of its territorial integrity and ending the illegal occupation of Azerbaijani lands that allowed Armenia to assert its sovereignty more forcefully. And normalisation also brings growth and development, including through regional integration and communications. Moreover, it was Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, who shortly after securing a decisive military success in 2020, proposed a roadmap for peace and normalisation. Over the last five years, the peace process slowly, with some setbacks and interruptions, progressed along the very road map Azerbaijan has suggested already in 2020. This is because over the three decades of conflict with Armenia, the international law was firmly on the side of Azerbaijan and because President Aliyev's vision is based on Azerbaijan's long-standing policy of regional development, shared prosperity and promoting sovereignty of nations in the region. Since early days of independence in 1990s, Azerbaijan has pursued a strategy of expanding partnership and making sure that the economic growth is not limited to Azerbaijan alone but includes partners such as Georgia and Central Asian nations across the Caspian. Today, such growth and path to prosperity can be shared by our neighbour Armenia because of normalisation. Nor is President Trump's support for peace in the Caucasus a new phenomenon. During Trump's first administration – I served as Azerbaijan's ambassador in Washington at the time – the U.S. Government pursued a pragmatic policy of ensuring prosperity in our region. I witnessed first-hand the hard work of the Trump administration in establishing the Abraham Accords and, having attended the Abraham Accords signing ceremony at the White House in September of 2020, I saw President Trump's ability and desire to be a global peacemaker. In fact, this is precisely what President Aliyev recognised and praised openly in July of 2024 at the Shusha Media Forum in Azerbaijan. The United States had previously attempted to address the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, under the Clinton administration and more seriously under the George W. Bush administration with Secretary of State Colin Powell presiding over unsuccessful talks in Key West. While I can personally attest to the beautiful setting of Florida Keys as someone present at that time, the premise of the U.S. approach was neither productive, nor sustainable. More recently, the clumsy attempts of the Biden Administration to push through a rushed success driven by special interest groups and ideological narrative predictably backfired causing major damage to U.S. interests in the wider Caspian region. This is why, Trump's approach based on a clear focus on a lasting peace, economic development and genuine interests of both Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as the United States, is welcome and supported by President Aliyev, whose own strategy is based on a similar vision. In Washington, President Aliyev stated that Azerbaijan and Armenia are closing the page of enmity and confrontation and choosing a lasting peace. President Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan agreed to advance President Trump's nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition to the most important part, the peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, such a nomination would have another symbolic connection to our region since it has historically been, at least partially funded by the money the Nobel brothers made from the oil business in Azerbaijan's capital Baku. This is the time to look forward to a prosperous, peaceful future for our region and not listen to the usual naysayers. After all, they too benefit from peace and inclusive economic development.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Ukrainians left disappointed at Trump rolling out red carpet for ‘tyrant' Putin
Ukrainians have reacted with anger to the welcome received by Russian president Vladimir Putin as he arrived in Alaska for a summit with his US counterpart Donald Trump on Friday (15 Aug). Trump failed to secure assurances from Putin to an end to Russia's conflict with Ukraine, despite describing the meeting as 'great progress'. However, residents in Kyiv were less enthusiastic. 'I was hoping that the U.S. wouldn't roll out the red carpet for an enemy. How can you welcome a tyrant like this?' said Natalya Lypei, 66, who lost her son during the war. Another, 60-year-old Natalya Cucil, said: 'There are no results. I am very surprised that Trump, the leader of a country that acts as an international police force and is always trying to maintain order in the world, meets with a terrorist who is wanted by the whole world.'
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
India confident of meeting fiscal deficit target, despite planned tax cuts
NEW DELHI, Aug 17 (Reuters) - India is confident of meeting its fiscal deficit target of 4.4% for the current fiscal year, according to a government source with knowledge of the matter, despite its plans to cut consumption tax later this year. In the biggest tax overhaul since 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced sweeping changes to the complex goods and services tax (GST) regime which will make daily essentials and electronics cheaper. "India's federal and state governments have options to offset any loss of revenue due to lowering of rates," the government source said without providing further details. The source also said it will end the practice of collecting compensation cess by December. The GST compensation cess is an additional levy imposed on certain items to compensate states for any revenue loss incurred due to the implementation. India's finance ministry did not respond to a request for comment sent outside of office hours.
