The United States and Azerbaijan signed a strategic partnership agreement in Baku today covering economic and security cooperation as Washington seeks to expand its influence in a region where Russia once held the upper hand.
The agreement was signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and US Vice President J.D. Vance, who is visiting Azerbaijan after visiting Armenia.
Vance said the US relationship with Azerbaijan is underappreciated but that it is a "very, very important partnership and friendship for the United States," AP reports.
He said the signings clearly show that the partnership is one that will endure and that will "continue to bear great fruit for both peoples."
Aliyev stated that the partnership provides new opportunities for cooperation with the US.
"It is a great honor for us to be strategic partners with the most powerful country in the world," Aliyev said.
Aliyev said Baku and Washington were entering a "completely new phase" of cooperation in arms sales and artificial intelligence and would continue to cooperate on energy security and the fight against terrorism, Reuters reported.
Vance said the US would send ships to Azerbaijan to help it protect its territorial waters.
The strategic partnership agreement was first unveiled at talks between Aliyev and US President Donald Trump in Washington in August, where Aliyev reached a peace agreement with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to end the two countries' decades-long war.
President Donald Trump's administration is pushing to implement a U.S.-brokered agreement aimed at ending Armenia's decades-long conflict with Azerbaijan. The agreement was signed by the foreign ministers of the two countries, giving them preliminary approval, but it still needs to be signed by the countries' leaders and ratified by parliaments.
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