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Azerbaijan and Armenia sign peace deal at White House summit with Trump
The leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia signed an agreement aimed at ending decades of conflict as they were hosted by President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan shook hands after the US president described the event as “historic”.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Trump said of the agreement, which will reopen some key transport routes between the countries and increase US influence in the region.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, in the 1980s and 1990s and violence has flared up in the years since.
On Friday, Trump said Armenia and Azerbaijan had promised to stop all fighting “forever” as well as open up travel, business and diplomatic relations.
“We are today establishing peace in the Caucasus,” Aliyev said. “We lost a lot of years being preoccupied with wars and occupation and bloodshed.”
Pashinyan called the signing a “significant milestone” in relations between the two countries.
“Thirty-five years they fought, and now they’re friends and they’re going to be friends a long time,” Trump said at the event.
The White House said that, as part of the deal, the US will also help build a major transit corridor that will be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.
The route will connect Azerbaijan and its autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, which are separated by Armenian territory. In the past, Aliyev has demanded that Armenia give his country a railroad corridor to Nakhichevan.
Armenia wanted to have control of the road and the Azerbaijani leader has in the past threatened to take the corridor by force. The issue has halted and stalled previous peace negotiations.
Both leaders praised Trump and his team throughout the meeting: “President Trump, in six months, did a miracle,” Aliyev said.
Trump said he had also signed a bilateral agreement with both countries to expand energy and technology trade.
The US president has sought to make peace deals between several warring countries during his second term.
The summit on Friday also signifies the US expanding its influence in the region at the expense of Russia. For more than a century, the Kremlin has played the role of power and peace broker there.
Most recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin himself has acted as the main mediator in the conflict. The last agreement signed by Aliyev and Pashinyan was crafted by Putin.
With Trump now bringing the two countries together, Putin is largely sidelined. Moscow has worked to insert its interests into peace talks, but both sides abandoned those proposals in favour of an American solution.
The announcement on Friday came shortly before Trump announced that he would meet Putin for talks in Alaska next week.
[BBC]
Half-centuries from Gull Feroza and Sidra Amin helped Pakistan start their tour of Sri Lanka on a winning note. After restricting Sri Lanka to 210 for 9, thanks to Nashra Sandhu’s 3 for 42, Pakistan got home with five wickets and seven overs to spare in the first woman’s ODI in Hambantota.
Vishmi Gunaratne, reunited with captain chamari Athapaththu at the top of the order, helped Sri Lanka lay a solid foundation after they opted to bat. The hosts raced to 31 without loss in the first five overs. Gunaratne and Athapaththu soon brought up their fifth fifty-run partnership in ODIs, the most by an opening pair for Sri Lanka.
Once spin came on, the scoring slowed down. Gunaratne was the first to depart when she became Sandhu’s first victim. Athapaththu and Hasini Perera then added 53 for the second wicket before the Sri Lanka captain was bowled by Sandhu. Pakistan applied the squeeze when Sri Lanka were 109 for 2 in the 24th over. The only notable stand for Sri Lanka thereon was between Nilakshika Silva and Kavisha Dilhari, who added 42 for the fifth wicket. But Sri Lanka’s final surge never came and they lost 5 for 32 in the last seven overs to be restricted to a below-par total.
Pakistan hardly broke a sweat in their chase. Feroza struck her fourth successive ODI half-century. She was rapid in the first powerplay, and was the aggressor in the 58-run opening partnership with Sadar Shamas. Feroza then added 90 for the second wicket with Amin, who batted steadily. Feroza eventually fell for a breezy 77-ball 78 while Amin scored 57 off 94 before being dismissed, with victory in sight.
The win was Pakistan’s fifth consecutive ODI win, which put them second on the ICC Women’s Championship points table.
Scores:
Pakistan Women 211 for 5 in 43 overs (Gull Feroza 78, Sidra Amin 57; Kavisha Dilhari 2-37) beat Sri Lanka Women 210 for 9 in 50 overs (Nilakshika Silva 46, Chamari Athapaththu 46; Nashra Sandhu 3-42, Tasmia Rubab 2-34) by five wickets
(CRICINFO)
[Cricbuzzz]
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