BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Russian leader Vladimir Putin held talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart on Monday as part of a two-day trip aimed at securing Moscow’s beleaguered trade routes and strengthening ties in the South Caucasus.
Business ties were high on the agenda when Putin and President Ilham Aliyev met in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, where Aliyev announced that $120 million had been set aside to boost freight transport between the two countries.
“We are talking about the possibility of transporting 15 million tons of cargo per year or more,” he said, adding that the two countries last year exceeded the $4 billion mark for Russia-Azerbaijan turnover and “neither of us thinks that this is the point where business will stop,”
Such ties are a priority for Putin, who is increasingly dependent on countries like Azerbaijan for access to global markets due to sanctions imposed on Moscow over The Russian War Against Ukraineaccording to independent political scientist Zardusht Alizade.
“Azerbaijan is an important transit country for Russia at a time when it needs free access to the global market, including Iran and ports in the Indian Ocean,” Alizade told The Associated Press.
Putin’s overtures have been warmly welcomed by Baku. For Azerbaijan, maintaining Moscow’s goodwill is important for national security amid tensions with neighboring Armenia, Alizade says.
Russia has been Armenia’s staunch sponsor and ally since the fall of the Soviet Union. But relations between the two countries have been increasingly strained since September 2023, when Azerbaijan waged a lightning war military campaign that took control of the Karabakh regionending three decades of ethnic Armenian separatist rule there.
Armenia accused Russian peacekeepers deployed in the region of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s attack. Moscow, which has a military base in Armenia, rejected the accusations and argued that its forces had no mandate to intervene.
Baku still hopes that Moscow can put pressure on Armenia to normalize relations, Alizade said. “Russia can accelerate the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.”
