Ilham Aliyev attended inaugural meeting of Board of Peace in Washington

The inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace was held on February 19 in Washington, the capital of the United States.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev participated in the meeting at the invitation of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The event began with a family photo, followed by a speech from President Trump.

Stating that he settled eight wars during his presidency, Donald Trump emphasized that he achieved peace between two very important countries and will never forget it. The U.S. President expressed his gratitude to the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia for the peace established in the region. “You know, when you go to wars, it costs you 100 times what it costs to make peace. We have a man (President Ilham Aliyev – ed.) at the end, right there. He is smiling. That's finally because you learned that after 30 years of fighting – right, 30 years of fighting – we got it done. I want to thank you very much. It was a great thing you did. You and your new friend – they came to my office and they said, 'I've been fighting for 22 years now.' - You're there for 23 years, right? – ‘But I've been fighting for 22 years. That's all I've done is fight this gentleman’. And his counterpart was there for seven years. He said, 'I've been there for seven years. All I've done is fight this gentleman.' And we had it worked out in about 24 hours, right? And it's been a good peace since that. I think they have become friends. I'm not sure I'm allowed to say that, but I think so. I think they've become friends, right? Stand up. You think that was easy? It wasn't easy. These are two tough people – good people, but tough people. But you know, we're in the Oval Office, and we were getting near, but one was at one side of the room. There were two chairs right in front of the desk – a beautiful Resolute Desk. One was over here, and one was on the other side of the room. I said, 'Nice. Could you get a little closer?' They felt very uncomfortable, you know; they've been killing each other for 32 years. So I said, 'Can you get a little closer?' After one hour, they were right next to each other. We made a deal, they hugged, they signed, and we had peace between two very important countries, and I'll never forget it. So they started off a little weak and they ended up really strong. And you can be very proud of yourselves. It was a beautiful thing to see. 32 years. Thank you.”

Speeches from representatives of other participating countries were then delivered.

The meeting concluded with the signing of the resolution of the Board of Peace on financial integrity and transparency principles.