Azerbaijan President and ExxonMobil sign energy deal in Washington

President of Azerbaijan and ExxonMobil signed an energy deal on Thursday (August 7) at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Washington, D.C., Reuters reports. 

ExxonMobil Vice President John Ardill and Azerbaijan Minister of the Economy Mikayil Jabbarov sat side by side as they signed the agreement. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev stood behind them. 

The agreement comes a day before U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to host the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia for an “an official peace signing ceremony” at the White House on Friday (August 08).

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the U.S. will also be signing bilateral economic agreements with the two countries.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh – an Azerbaijani region that had a mostly ethnic-Armenian population – broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

A peace deal could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran that is criss-crossed by oil and gas pipelines but riven by closed borders and longstanding ethnic conflicts.

Officials told Reuters they are to sign a framework aimed at reaching a “concrete pathway to peace” and addressing a long-simmering transit issue.