{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.daines.senate.gov/2025/10/23/daines-lauds-historic-armenia-azerbaijan-peace-deal-in-keynote-address-at-the-hudson-institute/", "Daines Lauds Historic Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Deal in Keynote Address at the Hudson Institute", "2025-10-23", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "MT", "Steve Daines", "D000618", "www.daines.senate.gov", "daines", "https://www.daines.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Lays Out Roadmap for Future U.S. Relations with the South Caucuses and Central Asia\n\nU.S. SENATE \u2013 U.S. Senator Steve Daines today delivered the keynote address at the Hudson Institute\u2019s conference on the future of U.S. engagement in the South Caucasus.\n\nWatch his remarks here.\n\nRead Daines\u2019 remarks as prepared for delivery below.\n\nThank you to the Hudson Institute for inviting me to be here with you all today, and to Mike Dolan for that introduction.\n\nFor more than 60 years the Hudson Institute has stood at the forefront of policy battles here in Washington and I am grateful for your work as both a resource to members and staff on the Hill and also the media and other thought leaders around DC.\n\nAs we turn our attention to foreign policy today, it really is an almost surreal time to address you all. There\u2019s an old saying, \u201cone day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.\u201d\n\nThat saying could describe Washington and the world with Donald Trump as President of the United States.\n\nAs I have often said, \u201cEvery hour is a new day in Washington.\u201d\n\nJust look at his accomplishments so far on the world stage: peace agreements between Cambodia and Thailand, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.\n\nOf course the monumental achievement over the past few weeks of getting the living Israeli hostages out of Gaza. Not to mention the Abraham Accords from his first term.\n\nBut what I want to focus on today is an agreement many didn\u2019t see coming and that\u2019s the peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.\n\nIt caught many of the Beltway media by surprise. Punchbowl was talking about it on their podcast the morning it was signed and were in complete shock.\n\nThey went so far as to say that the CODELs we take are a joke and just couldn\u2019t believe we could lay the groundwork for a major peace agreement on the solo CODEL I took to the region.\n\nIt\u2019s always great to prove the cynical Beltway media wrong so let me tell you how it happened and then focus on the future of American involvement in the South Caucasus, and the opportunities the region holds.\n\n\u2026\n\nTo understand the magnitude of the recent Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement, we must first briefly look to the historical context of the conflict.\n\nThe two sides have been locked in a state of conflict since the late 1980s, with multiple wars and very little progress on reconciliation.\n\nThe initial conflict between the two sides lasted from 1988 to 1994, and nine additional active conflicts from 2008 to 2023.\n\nThe Soviet Union, and subsequently Russia, typically acted as the regional power broker and purposefully prolonged the conflict to maintain their control and influence over the region by ensuring that both countries could not achieve their own goals and were instead stuck in a cycle of violence.\n\nEvery President since H.W. Bush pursued their own peace initiatives, trying to find a resolution to the issue, but all came up short.\n\nSome did not properly resource or prioritize the talks, while others simply could not get the two sides to see eye to eye.\n\nThat brings us to this year, when the Trump administration prioritized finding peace in the South Caucasus; with members of his team engaging both sides of the conflict from the beginning of the year.\n\nRussia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine has diverted Putin\u2019s attention and pulled Russian resources further west and provided an opening for greater American involvement and influence.\n\nArmenia and Azerbaijan countries shed the yoke of Russian coercion and turned toward an independent future in partnership with the United States.\n\nSteve Witkoff\u2019s team was immediately on the ground, tackling the thorniest issues in the deal head-on.\n\nPrevious negotiation efforts tried to separate out individual issues, creating an incredibly complex diplomatic network and unintentionally downplaying the complexities of the region.\n\nThis administration tackled the negotiations with a holistic approach, recognizing that each issue is connected to the other, and that their resolutions are mutually reinforcing, not exclusive.\n\nAmerican negotiators came up with the innovative concept of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, or TRIPP, which would connect Azerbaijan to its exclave Nakhchivan while creating a new trade route that Armenia, Azerbaijan, and other regional states would benefit from.\n\nThe connection between the two had long been the trickiest aspect of peace talks, and the TRIPP was a completely new way of framing a solution that was amenable to both sides.\n\nI traveled to the region in May of this year, in the middle of the Trump administration-brokered negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.\n\nAt the time peace was certainly not guaranteed and negotiations were still fragile.\n\nDecades of conflict had taken a toll on trust between the two countries, and while talks were progressing, they were not quite complete.\n\nWhile in the region, I met with both President Aliyev and Prime Minister Pashinyan.\n\nI traveled with members of my team, embassy officials, as well as some administration staff.\n\nOur meetings offered an opportunity to present a fresh perspective on the negotiations, a perspective both leaders seemed eager to hear.\n\nThey both sincerely wanted to resolve this conflict permanently.\n\nThey both saw the opportunities the future could hold, and that the violence had to end before they could pursue those opportunities.\n\nWe were able to discuss practical solutions to intractable problems that had plagued the peace talks for decades prior.\n\nBoth Prime Minister Pashinyan and President Aliyev have demonstrated tremendous courage and fortitude throughout this process, putting their reputations and legacies on the line in pursuit of peace.\n\nTheir courage combined with President Trump and his team\u2019s creative diplomacy and problem solving have brought us to where we stand today.\n\nOn that same trip, I also traveled to the third nation of the South Caucasus: Georgia.\n\nWhile in Tbilisi, I met with members of both the ruling Georgian Dream party as well as the opposition.\n\nThe message I delivered to them was that any antagonism between our countries could end tomorrow.\n\nThat visit provided a remarkable split screen: Armenia and Azerbaijan have chosen to work with the United States to build the multilateral framework that will propel their nations into the future, while Georgia has unfortunately moved in the wrong direction in recent years.\n\nThe United States stands ready to work with Georgia to provide a better future for their people.\n\nBoth leaders were receptive to my message, but there have since been some negative developments.\n\nThe Trump administration is right to push Georgia to behave responsibly, but I would continue to stress to Georgia that our relations need not continue down the track they are on now.\n\nThere is no reason Georgia cannot be a part of the newly emerging regional partnership and benefit the same as its neighbors, all they need to do is reach out and grasp the United States\u2019 outstretched hand and redouble their commitment to a pluralistic, democratic governance system.\n\nThat brings us to August 8th, when both Aliyev and Pashinyan traveled to Washington to sign an agreement and joint declaration on peace in the South Caucasus.\n\nI was in attendance on that momentous day.\n\nThe agreement is not the end of the road for this process but instead offers a roadmap for the future.\n\nIt outlines the principles of peace, commitments both sides have made, and the U.S.\u2019s role as the deal\u2019s guarantor.\n\nNow that the deal has been signed, the U.S. can get to work with our partners on implementation.\n\nUnsurprisingly, the Trump administration is moving quickly, they have already provided $145 million in funding for development in Armenia, and more will come as needed.\n\nThe United States is making hard dollar, concrete investments in regional peace that will benefit all our countries.\n\nThe economic potential as a result of this deal is massive.\n\nArmenia and Azerbaijan have considerable natural wealth in their own rights; Baku is one of the world\u2019s most important gas and oil exporters with infrastructure carrying their product all the way across Turkey to Europe, while Armenia has major copper, lead, zinc, antimony, and other critical mineral deposits.\n\nAzerbaijan has also been an integral partner to Israel, providing much of the gas they use to power their economy, ensuring steady energy flows through its direct confrontation with Iran.\n\nArmenia\u2019s \u201cCrossroads of Peace\u201d initiative is also promising, seeking to make major infrastructure investments to better connect the Caucasus, Middle East, and Central Asia to Western markets.\n\nFurther to the East, Central Asia\u2019s riches for the first time have hope for a Central Corridor, an unimpeded path to travel west, allowing European and American firms to make longer-term investments with the certainty of long-term transport capability.\n\nCentral Asia\u2019s energy, mineral, and agricultural wealth can help strengthen fragile supply chains to the West, offering new sources for the building blocks of national power and economic growth.\n\nThese resources can also support the nations they pass through and provide steady revenues to both Armenia and Azerbaijan.\n\nToday\u2019s environment offers a new opportunity to complete the last 20 miles of the long-theorized Trans-Caspian interconnector pipeline, bringing Turkmenistan\u2019s gas west through existing pipeline infrastructure and to significantly reduce, or potentially end, Europe\u2019s reliance on Russian gas.\n\nThe Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement is a diplomatic breakthrough and an instance of truly mutually beneficial peacemaking.\n\nThrough innovative problem solving, courageous commitment to peace, and dogged determination, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the United States are collectively walking towards a new, more prosperous, more secure future.\n\nDecades ago, Jimmy Carter\u2019s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzesinski dreamed of uncorking the riches of the Caspian Basin, and this deal gets us one step closer to that goal.\n\nAll it took was a determined President and a team of talented diplomats to get it done.\n\nGone are the days of endless negotiations and empty promises; American diplomacy is back under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Rubio.\n\nI look forward to continuing to work towards finalizing this peace agreement and to bringing that bright future to fruition.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", 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