Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have participated in the inaugural session of the Peace Board in Washington.
The two leaders attended the session on Thursday.
Both countries accepted US President Donald Trump’s invitation to the Board of Peace as founding members in January. The board was initially intended to oversee the administrative transition in Gaza from Hamas rule, but has since expanded its mission to ‘the development and dissemination of best practices capable of being applied by all nations and communities seeking peace’.
During the meeting, Trump, who regularly boasts about how he resolved the decadeslong conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, again spoke about how he mediated the initialling of the peace agreement between the two countries.
‘I think they’re friends now’, he said.
Pashinyan and Aliyev also spoke one-on-one on the sidelines of the board’s meeting, but no details about their conversations were published by either side.
Trump announced during the meeting that members of the board have pledged more than $7 billion for reconstruction efforts in Gaza, and that the US would contribute $10 billion to the organisation.
He named Azerbaijan among the countries that have contributed to the relief package. Azerbaijan was again mentioned as being among those countries by an announcer, who urged the leaders and representatives of countries that have joined the fundraising efforts to join Trump on stage as he signed the pledge. Aliyev is then seen standing behind Trump as he is signing the document.
However, shortly after, Aliyev’s aide Hikmat Hajiyev clarified on X that Azerbaijan ‘doesn’t envisage to participate in the $7 billion financial initiative’, but that it ‘may consider participating in investment projects in Gaza through the Board of Peace’.
Since its founding in January, the Board of Peace has received 22 members, all by invitation. Those include Israel, Hungary, and Uzbekistan, among others. The board does not have any Palestinian representation.
Despite accepting the offer to join the board, Belarus has claimed that its delegation was denied a US visa to attend the meeting, despite informing the US that its Foreign Minister Maksim Ryzhenkov would attend.
‘If even basic formalities aren’t respected, what “peace” are we talking about?’, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
As Aliyev was in Washington to attend the meeting, several Azerbaijani migrants attempted to gather to confront him in front of his hotel. Aliyev’s security detail assaulted and chased off the protesters, beating them in plain view of US police officers.
Aytan Farhadova
