YEREVAN /ARKA/ reports that the most politically sensitive barrier to a full peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains Azerbaijan’s expectation that Armenia amend its constitution to remove language implying potential claims on Karabakh, a move facing significant domestic resistance in Yerevan, according to S&P Global, which notes that the earlier dispute over an extraterritorial corridor to Nakhchivan has been settled politically with both sides accepting that all new routes will operate under host-state sovereignty, although detailed agreements on security protocols, customs procedures, and infrastructure sequencing are still pending, and while the peace process has entered its most constructive phase in decades following the August 2025 U.S.-brokered declaration committing both sides to mutual recognition, accelerated border delimitation, and the reopening of regional transport routes, the declaration is not legally binding and therefore lacks codified institutional components such as security guarantees, monitoring mechanisms, and provisions for former Karabakh Armenians, limiting its durability, with implementation progressing slowly, the risk of large-scale conflict significantly reduced but still dependent on political will and technical negotiations, and S&P warns that without mutually acceptable security and operational arrangements the current stability could be vulnerable to domestic or regional shocks, even as both governments plan to reduce defense spending in their 2026 budgets, signaling lower near-term military tensions and greater confidence in the peace process’s political trajectory.