168: Baku’s new ally. Azerbaijan continues active politics

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev continues to work purposefully in the direction of deepening cooperation and integration with the countries of Central Asia.

On July 30-31, Ilham Aliyev was on a state visit to Kyrgyzstan, where he had meetings with the country’s president Sadir Zhaparov, participated in the third session of the Interstate Council of Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as a number of official events. The visit is evaluated as a new stage in the relations between the two countries, from the point of view of bringing them from a strategic partnership to an alliance level.

The main political result of the visit was the signing of the “Agreement on Allied Relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Kyrgyzstan”. The President of Kyrgyzstan called the document a “historical event” that takes the cooperation of the two countries to a qualitatively new level.

The agreement on allied relations envisages the deepening of foreign policy coordination, the expansion of cooperation in the fields of security and defense, the strengthening of military-technical ties, as well as the development of economic, investment, transport, energy, industrial and humanitarian cooperation. The document also envisages closer cooperation in international and regional organizations.

During the visit, the third session of the Interstate Council of Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan was also held, during which the entire agenda of bilateral relations was discussed, from trade and economic ties to transport communications, energy, investments and cultural cooperation. The parties announced that bilateral relations have been developing rapidly in recent years, and the new agreement will become their institutional basis.

And in parallel with this visit, an informal meeting of the heads of the Central Asian states and Azerbaijan was held in Cholpon-Ata, where the issues of regional cooperation, transport corridors, energy interconnection and economic integration were discussed.

Russian Orientalist Viktor Nadein-Raevsky 168.amtold that Aliyev’s activity in Central Asia in recent years is not accidental and is also due to coordination with Turkey and broad geopolitical trends.

If we only mention Azerbaijan, then, according to him, it is one of the important components of Azerbaijan’s long-term strategy, the goal of which is to turn the country into a key political, economic and transport hub connecting the South Caucasus, Central Asia and Europe.  According to the analyst, in the new geopolitical conditions created by the Ukrainian war, Baku is trying to make the most of the growing international interest in the Middle Corridor by increasing its role in East-West communications.

“At the same time, it is consistently deepening cooperation with the countries of Central Asia, considering it also as a means of expanding Azerbaijan’s influence within the framework of the Organization of Turkic States, trying to contrast this cooperation with the already existing Eurasian axis. For Baku, this platform has long gone beyond the scope of cultural cooperation, turning into a tool of political, economic and security cooperation.

At the same time, with the relative weakening of Russia’s influence and the multi-vector foreign policy of Central Asian countries, Azerbaijan is trying to strengthen its position in the region by offering transit routes to Europe, investment programs and opportunities for wider economic integration through Turkey. Thus, Baku strives not only to expand bilateral relations, but also to form a favorable regional architecture, where Azerbaijan will act as a key link of the Turkic world and East-West communications.

Azerbaijan has a rather ambitious agenda, and there is a lot of doubt among the expert community about the extent to which this agenda will succeed, but the ambitions have been obvious for a long time. That is also the reason why Azerbaijan faces problems in relations with Iran and Russia from time to time and tests its borders,” said Victor Nadein-Raevsky.

At the same time, according to him, all this also affects Azerbaijan’s aspirations in the South Caucasus, as well as Azerbaijan’s diplomatic tone.

“Attempts to expand Azerbaijan’s influence in Central Asia do not in themselves predetermine the outcome of the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations, but it provides Baku with additional political and diplomatic resources,” he said.

The analyst believes that Azerbaijan’s policy towards Central Asia has long since gone beyond the scope of normal bilateral relations and has become a part of Baku’s broader geopolitical strategy.

“The degree of success of that strategy still depends on many external factors, the combination of interests of Russia, Turkey, China, Iran and the West. In a certain sense, the success of all that depends on further developments, therefore, on further agreements and decisions of the superpowers,” remarked Victor Nadein-Raevsky.

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