Russia – Azerbaijan: Putin and Aliyev Declare Expansion of Strategic Cooperation

The Russian Federation supports raising Azerbaijan’s status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). In addition, Moscow welcomed with satisfaction the interest of the Caucasian country in developing cooperation with the BRICS group of countries. This was written in the joint statement of Azerbaijani and Russian Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin, published at the end of the summit in Baku on Monday, August 19.

In this context of bilateral international relations, Russia has made it clear that it wants to regain its leading role in mediating between Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia in order to prevent the USA or the European Union from increasing its political weight in the Caucasus region. After regaining control of Karabakh, a region that had been in the hands of pro-Armenian separatists for thirty years, the two Caucasus countries have been mired in complex negotiations, unable for the moment to move closer to a peace agreement.

Azerbaijan is currently a “dialogue partner” of the Shanghai Organization and, as the Azerbaijani press writes today, “has long sought to acquire the status of an observer country” and counts on the support of Russia, which plays an important role in these international organizations.

The two leaders said that Russia and Azerbaijan will continue to coordinate their activities in the energy sector. Russia wants to expand its access to Azerbaijan’s gas pipeline system to increase its methane exports. “In the energy sector, the situation in both oil and gas sector and the power sector has been analyzed in detail. We are actively working in this direction. I am sure we will continue to coordinate our activities,” Aliyev said after talks with Putin.

Much attention during the talks was paid to the construction of strategic infrastructure. In particular, it was announced that Russia and Azerbaijan are considering the possibility of creating a North-South trade route and increasing cargo transportation by road and rail from 15 to 30 million tons per year. Aliyev said after talks with Putin, “We discussed in detail the implementation of the North-South corridor project, which is of exceptional importance for our interstate relations, as well as issues related to regional transport corridors and routes.”

Aliyev emphasized that “both railway and road sections of the North-South corridor have been fully implemented and are successfully functioning on the territory of Azerbaijan. At the moment we are actively engaged in modernization of the railway section of this corridor to increase its capacity, we are talking about the possibility of transporting cargoes from 15 million tons to 30 million tons, and this goal is quite realistic.”

Finally, on the sidelines of the Putin-Aliyev summit, Russia and Azerbaijan signed a package of agreements on cooperation in healthcare, medical education, and science.