The peace agreement initialed at the White House between Armenia and Azerbaijan earlier this year represents more than the end of a long war. It opens a window of possibility that can transform decades of hostility into an era of cooperation, where shared infrastructure, trade, and technology can do what diplomacy alone cannot. If there is vision, it can translate peace on paper into peace in practice. 

As seen in Gaza, turning signatures into stability requires oversight and mentoring. The United States can play a critical, follow-on role to transform political normalization in the South Caucasus into a framework of connectivity, commerce, and confidence. In so doing, Washington can ground this new-found cooperation into the larger trans-Caspian space that links energy- and mineral-rich Central Asia to Europe and global markets. 

For more than three decades, the frozen conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan largely defined South Caucasus geopolitics as a zone of closed borders and missed opportunities. The protracted and bitter dispute demonstrated that external powers, whether Russian peacekeepers or Western mediators, were limited in what they could accomplish. However, now with the White House agreement, both sides have a chance to break that cycle and the United States has a unique opportunity to shape not only the peace settlement between the two states, but a deeper transformation of the region's geopolitical architecture. 

To capitalize on this important step forward, Washington can help lock in the dividends of peace by focusing on one unifying theme: confidence-building through connectivity. At its core, this means focusing on connectivity as strategy--a principle that underpins every durable peace process. Infrastructure, when designed for shared benefit, becomes more than a transport system; it becomes a structure of trust. Roads, railways, and pipelines are difficult to weaponize once both sides depend on them. Data cables and trade routes can be conduits for both transparency and common understanding. The United States can help both Yerevan and Baku convert planned regional corridors into pathways for stability. 

To this end, a first priority should be to ensure that the so-called Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), linking Azerbaijan's mainland with its Nakhchivan exclave through southern Armenia, becomes an engine of shared prosperity rather than renewed rivalry. The new South Caucasus transport corridor is the foundation of the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement brokered by the White House.  

Managed well and with transparency, the corridor would connect Armenia to the Caspian basin for the first time in decades and integrate Armenia into east-west trade. The U.S.-backed TRIPP corridor would implement the peace process by creating a viable land bridge from Central Asia to Europe, opening direct access for Armenia to Azerbaijani and Central Asian markets to the east and Türkiye and Europe to the west. 

A U.S.-supported formal committee of Armenian and Azerbaijani transport officials could oversee logistics, customs, and security, to transition this crucial link from a contested frontier to a regional trade artery. The committee would need to be bolstered by technical support from American and European partners and work to institutionalize transparency and make cooperation routine rather than exceptional. 

Equally important would be to situate the new trans-Caucasus project within the broader Middle Corridor. The emerging trans-Caspian trade route already connects Central Asia to Europe via Georgia in the South Caucasus, with the United States supporting a variety of elements including ports on Kazakhstan's Caspian coast to rail modernization in Georgia. Integrating Armenia into that system doubles the Middle Corridor's existing freight capacity, gives Central Asian exporters another viable and sanctions-free alternative to routes controlled by Russia and China, and draws Armenia and Azerbaijan into a mutually beneficial economic ecosystem. Every railcar of copper from Kazakhstan or container of Uzbek cotton that passes through Armenia and Azerbaijan reinforces peace through shared transit revenues and common interests. 

The same logic applies to energy connectivity. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Southern Gas Corridor have long been examples of how U.S. support for regional cooperation can underpin sovereignty and stability. Adding energy components to the TRIPP route would create the needed pipeline capacity for expanded transit of Central Asian gas and oil to global markets, bypassing pipelines through Russia and Iran. Including Central Asia's new, renewable "Green Energy Corridor to Europe" of wind and solar energy power to TRIPP could have the added benefit of ensuring Armenia has access to a diversity of energy sources not controlled by Russia or Iran. 

Beyond transport and energy, digital connectivity offers another powerful new avenue for embedding peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. A high-capacity fiber corridor now emerging from Georgia through Azerbaijan and across the Caspian, supported by the EU and private investors, promises to carry data between Europe and Asia without reliance on Russia or Iran. The United States should encourage both Yerevan and Baku to link into this network via shared data hubs. 

Embedding both countries within a single digital network would diversify Armenia's economy, expand Azerbaijan's role as a regional conduit, and foster the everyday coordination, cybersecurity cooperation, and transparency that help turn political normalization on paper into actual trust in practice. Shared data systems naturally build openness: when customs records, logistics, and cross-border transactions are digitized, it becomes harder for suspicion or misinformation to take root. In this sense, digital connectivity is more than a technical project; it is part of a peace architecture that binds former adversaries into a single, rules-based corridor that links Europe and the Indo-Pacific. 

To sustain this momentum, the United States and its partners could launch a South Caucasus-Central Asia working group to align technical standards, financing, and cross-border infrastructure from fiber optics and green energy lines to port logistics in Baku and Aktau. Washington could help bring together Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan to coordinate infrastructure standards, financing, and digital governance. 

Another priority should be the creation of a South Caucasus Connectivity Fund, a mechanism that pools U.S., European, and regional financing for cross-border projects. Each approved project—whether a rail line, an energy pipeline, or a digital fiber link—should require the active participation of both Armenia and Azerbaijan. This approach would create shared ownership of infrastructure and ensure both populations see tangible economic benefits from peace. The Fund could also channel support into cross-border regions, financing local business incubators, logistics centers, and vocational training programs tied to corridor employment. When communities on both sides gain livelihoods from stability, peace becomes self-reinforcing. 

Security, too, depends on integration. The United States can help develop shared early-warning and risk-reduction mechanisms as channels for information exchange and crisis prevention. When transit routes, data cables, and energy lines run through multiple countries, their protection becomes a shared responsibility. A U.S.-facilitated working group to ensure regional connectivity security would be another step to help institutionalize that cooperation, supported by technology partnerships and satellite-based monitoring to ensure transparency along critical infrastructure. 

The payoff extends well beyond the South Caucasus. A stable, interconnected Armenia and Azerbaijan will serve as the linchpin between the region’s energy markets and Central Asia's mineral and manufacturing corridors. While the world competes for secure supplies of critical materials like lithium, rare-earth minerals, copper, and uranium, the ability to move them efficiently through routes not controlled by Moscow, Beijing, or Tehran is a strategic asset. For the United States and its allies, backing this peace means strengthening global resilience against coercive dependencies and opening pathways for American investment in logistics, technology, and infrastructure. 

Yet the diplomatic window in which the U.S. can translate the TRIPP vision into reality has clearly widened. During her recent mission to Yerevan and Baku, Under Secretary of State Allison Hooker initiated U.S. follow-on efforts to facilitate the peace architecture. Bilateral working groups in both Armenia and Azerbaijan were created to operationalize the peace framework agreement.  These groups, under the day-to-day direction of Deputy Assistant Secretary Sonata Coulter, will develop Strategic Partnership Charters with Baku and Yerevan. 

The follow-on efforts are vital for ensuring the process does not stall out, as negotiators work to address thorny issues such as border-security guarantees, leasing arrangements, and transit operations procedures. Success is far from assured, but this new leadership structure signals that the corridor is not destined to be a distant dream but an actively managed strategic project with Washington institutionally committed to steering the process.  

The South Caucasus today offers the rare opportunity of a post-conflict region eager to cooperate, a strategic geography linking continents, and a moment of U.S. credibility earned through balanced diplomacy. Peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan will hold not through declarations, but through interdependence: through the flow of trains, data, and ideas. It appears Washington is taking this challenge seriously and seeks to seize that opportunity.  Moreover, if successful, these efforts won't just help Armenia and Azerbaijan. They will show that American diplomacy, when coupled with sustained economic vision, can still turn conflict into connection in one of the world's most strategic crossroads. 

 

Dr. Eric Rudenshiold served under Presidents Trump and Biden as a Director at the U.S. National Security Council and is currently a Senior Fellow at the Caspian Policy Center in Washington. He writes frequently on Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and U.S. strategy in Eurasia.