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BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — The Russian leader said Vladimir Putin Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart on Monday as part of a two-day visit to secure Russia's under-pressure trade routes and strengthen ties in the South Caucasus.
Trade ties were high on the agenda as Putin and President Ilham Aliyev Presidents Aliyev and Azerbaijan met in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, where Aliyev announced the allocation of $120 million to boost freight transport between the two countries.
“We are talking about the possibility of transporting 15 million tons of goods annually or more,” he said, adding that the two countries exceeded $4 billion in trade volume between Russia and Azerbaijan last year and “none of us believes that things will stop there.”
These relations are a priority for Putin, who increasingly relies on countries such as Azerbaijan for access to global markets due to sanctions imposed on Moscow. Russia's war on UkraineIndependent political expert Zardasht Alizadeh said:
“Azerbaijan is an important transit country for Russia at a time when it needs free access to global markets, including Iran and ports in the Indian Ocean,” Alizadeh told The Associated Press.
Putin’s initiatives have been warmly welcomed by Baku. Alizade says maintaining Moscow’s goodwill is crucial for Azerbaijan’s national security in the face of tensions with neighboring Armenia.
Russia has been Armenia’s longtime patron and ally since the fall of the Soviet Union. But relations between the two countries have become increasingly tense since September 2023, when Azerbaijan launched a lightning offensive into Armenia. The military campaign in which it took control of the Karabakh regionending three decades of ethnic Armenian separatist rule there.
Armenia has accused Russian peacekeepers deployed in the region of failing to stop Azerbaijan's offensive. Moscow, which has a military base in Armenia, has rejected the accusations, arguing that its forces do not have a mandate to intervene.
Alizade said Baku still hopes Moscow can pressure Armenia to normalize relations. “Russia can accelerate the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations,” he added.
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