Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen is set to visit Azerbaijan on Tuesday, a Shia Muslim country that neighbors Iran and Russia and from which Israel receives 30% of its oil.
“I am leaving today for an important political visit in order to continue to build, together with our good friends in Baku, a united and strong front in the face of our common challenges and the deepening of cooperation in the fields of economy, security, energy and innovation,” Cohen said.
To help strengthen those ties, a delegation will include representatives from 20 Israeli firms dealing in cyber and homeland security as well as in water management and agriculture.
“The economic delegation of important Israeli companies that we are leading today adds another dimension to efforts to improve good relations and increase trade between Israel and Azerbaijan.”
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen
“The economic delegation of important Israeli companies that we are leading today adds another dimension to efforts to improve good relations and increase trade between Israel and Azerbaijan,” he said.
The volume of trade between the two nations now rests at $200 million but is expected to grow to half a billion this year, as part of the push to promote Israeli-Azerbaijani economic ties.
The two countries also enjoy strong security cooperation and Israel is an important arms supplier to Azerbaijan. Security experts have also speculated that the country’s air bases could be used by Israel to launch an aerial attack against Iranian nuclear targets.
Last month Azerbaijan’s newly installed Ambassador to Israel Mukhtar Mammadov told The Jerusalem Post, that his country would not allow its airbases to be used to strike at Iran.
What are Cohen's plans in Baku?
While in Baku, Cohen will meet with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, the latter of whom just visited Israel at the end of March when the country open its first-ever Embassy. Azerbaijan is the first Shia Muslim country to do so.
In a briefing with reporters on Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani emphasized the strength of Iran’s relationship with Azerbaijan, explaining that Israel's initiative to get closer to Baku was part of an overall strategy of stoking regional discord, according to Press TV.
“Since the Zionist regime’s so-called national security and survival strategies are anchored in creating and stoking instability and insecurity across the [West Asia] region and in the Muslim world, its mischief will not be exclusively directed at Tehran-Baku ties,” Kan’ani said.