WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump convened a peace summit at the White House on Friday with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan that is meant to help end decades of conflict and reopen key transportation routes while allowing the U.S. to seize on Russia's declining influence in the region.

The two countries in the South Caucasus region will sign an agreement that will create a major transit corridor that will be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, the White House said. That route will connect Azerbaijan and its autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, which are separated by a 32-kilometer-wide (20-mile-wide) patch of Armenian territory. The demand from Azerbaijan had held up peace talks in the past.

“It’s a long time," Trump said. "Thirty-five years they fought

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