POLITICAL ENERGY

Thanks to the dynamics of Azerbaijan's relations with the Arab world, it is possible to suggest that ties between our countries are experiencing an unprecedented upsurge in history. This is by no means accidental, as international and regional dynamics demand building closer relations.

The UAE priority

This was clearly demonstrated during President Ilham Aliyev's visit to the United Arab Emirates in mid-January. Incidentally, this was the first visit of the Azerbaijani leader to the UAE since the change of power in the Emirates in May 2022, when Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan's younger brother was elected president following his death.

Ilham Aliyev has well known the new UAE president as a time-tested partner. In fact, since 2014, when President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan suffered a stroke and Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan began representing the country in international negotiations, the two leaders have been engaged in intense dialogue.

The official visit of the President of Azerbaijan to the UAE in February 2016 and the visit of the UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan to Baku in May 2017 have boosted the deepening of bilateral ties.

So far the two countries have signed more than 30 documents on cooperation in economy, trade, investment, healthcare, culture, etc.

Bilateral trade in January-October 2022 increased 2.5 times and reached more than $90m compared to the same period last year.

In order to intensify bilateral relations, the UAE and Azerbaijan have agreed to establish respective trade missions. Thus, a trade mission of Azerbaijan in Dubai has been operating in Dubai since 2017. In 2019, Azerbaijan Trade House was opened in the UAE to organise the sale of Azerbaijani products in the Gulf countries. Azerbaijan has so far invested $513 million in the UAE. At the same time, the UAE investment in the Azerbaijani economy reaches nearly $2.2 billion and is growing thanks to the implementation of significant energy projects. There are 233 UAE investment companies operating in Azerbaijan.

In addition, there is a joint intergovernmental commission on economic, commercial and technical cooperation operating since 2008 in various fields. Currently, the perspective areas of cooperation between the two countries are power generation from renewable energy sources and tourism.

Azerbaijan expects that the UAE business community will also be interested in projects in the FEZ Alat and the liberated territories of Garabagh. In addition, the UAE is now competing with Saudi Arabia for the implementation of large-scale green energy projects in Azerbaijan.

During President Ilham Aliyev's working visit to the UAE, SOCAR of Azerbaijan and the Emirati company Masdar signed an agreement on the joint development of 2GW offshore wind and hydrogen power plant projects. Another signed agreement was on the development of 1GW solar photovoltaic and onshore wind farms.

By the way, the UAE is the first country that has pledged to ensure carbon neutrality by 2050. It plans to increase its overall contribution to clean energy from 25% to 50%. The country has also pledged to reduce the carbon footprint of electricity generation by 70% by 2050.

Back at the end of 2021, French company Engie and Abu Dhabi's Masdar signed an agreement to build a green hydrogen hub in the United Arab Emirates. Something similar could also be created in Azerbaijan.

"The agreement to produce 4GW of wind and solar power is still a short-term project. Medium-term projects will increase the generation capacity to 10GW. As a result, our cooperation with Masdar will turn Azerbaijan into a very important source of green energy,” President Aliyev said, referring to the existing agreement between SOCAR and Masdar.

The signing of the Abraham Accords and the increasing role of Abu Dhabi in regional and international politics may also boost the Azerbaijani-Emirati relations.

The UAE has long-standing territorial disputes with Iran and could support Baku in the existing situation with Tehran. The UAE's support to Azerbaijan during the UN Security Council debates on the South Caucasus can be considered a kind of advance for Baku, should Abu Dhabi need international support to act against Tehran. For example, if the territorial dispute over islands in the Persian Gulf worsens.

The Azerbaijani president praised the UAE's support in the UN Security Council when the French-Armenian initiative condemning Baku's actions on the Lachin corridor was blocked.

Ilham Aliyev's participation in the opening ceremony of the Abu Dhabi Sustainable Development Week was quite expected, as the event has been organised by Masdar. In his keynote address, President Aliyev highlighted the importance of cooperation with the UAE. He made it clear that this would contribute to the implementation of the "green corridor" project from Azerbaijan to Hungary thanks to the agreement recently signed in Romania. Thus, the UAE becomes a de facto partner in the implementation of an important mega-project for Europe.

Saudi interests

Meanwhile, it is not only the UAE that has a keen interest in energy cooperation with Azerbaijan.

On September 4, 2022, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud paid an official visit to Azerbaijan. Saudi Arabia is another country that seeks to increase cooperation with Baku. Azerbaijan, whose political weight has increased since the 44-day war, is seen by the Saudi kingdom as an important partner in the Caucasus-Caspian region.

Riyadh is already implementing a number of strategic energy projects in Azerbaijan and intends to strengthen its presence through other major investment plans. At the end of 2022, Baku hosted the 7th Intergovernmental Commission on Cooperation between Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia, which proved once again that cooperation between the two countries had great prospects. During the meeting the Small and Medium Business Development Agency (KOBIA) of Azerbaijan and the Federation of Chambers of Saudi Arabia signed an agreement on the establishment of a joint business council of Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia. The agreement is a road map for the development of economic cooperation in the future. One of the promising areas of cooperation is tourism and restoration of liberated areas. The statement of the Saudi Fund for Development confirmed its readiness to provide funding for the restoration of the liberated territories of Azerbaijan, Garabagh and Eastern Zangezur. This funding will be in addition to the multi-million dollar investment projects to build wind power generating facilities in Azerbaijan by the Saudi ACWA Power.

During his earlier meetings with President Aliyev and the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, the Saudi minister has reiterated the need to coordinate the efforts of both countries in the international arena and in regional policy issues.

The SA minister has declared Riyadh's full support for Azerbaijan and called it a "brotherly country". In particular, he referred to Baku's initiatives at the UN, the OIC and other organisations in which both countries participate.

In light of recent developments in the region, Azerbaijan can also rely on Saudi Arabia's assistance in opening the Zangezur corridor and implementing other regional projects that concern the interests of all participants. Baku can also count on Riyadh’s condemnation of Yerevan's actions with regard to the creation of artificial tension in the region, delays of the delimitation and demarcation talks and the conclusion of a peace treaty. Azerbaijan also relies on the Saudi support in case of possible unfriendly initiatives by other actors, in particular Iran, which openly sides with Yerevan.

Algeria, North Africa and...

But Azerbaijan's relations with the Arab world are not limited to the above two countries.

On November 1, 2022 Ilham Aliyev attended the 31st summit of the League of Arab States (LAS) at the invitation of the President of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, the incumbent chair of the Non-Aligned Movement. This is another indicator of Azerbaijan's rapprochement with the wider Arab world.

During the visit, Baku has demonstrated its closeness to the Arab world and Muslim countries, voicing its position on the importance of strengthening Islamic solidarity and combating manifestations of neo-colonialism.

Remarkably, the summit coincided with celebrations of one of the Algerian national holidays, the Revolution Day. On this day, the nation commemorates the start of the 1954 independence war (the Algerian War). Algeria has used the occasion to demonstrate the independent course of the country's development, the return to big politics after several years of internal problems and the overthrow of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Algerian diplomacy has been working hard over the past months to bring all the LAS leaders together.

In his keynote address, President of Azerbaijan has underlined the issues of Islamic solidarity, as well as the rapprochement of all the developing countries against common risks and challenges. As an example, he mentioned Azerbaijan’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and its efforts against "the vaccine nationalism", a practice implemented by developed countries.

Undoubtedly, the summit has been a good opportunity to boost Azerbaijan's engagement with the Arab world, in particular with Algeria. The convergence of the both countries' positions on a range of global and regional policy issues contributes to the development of dialogue between them.

Algeria has also become considerably closer to Ankara in recent years, which also allows Baku to intensify relations with this important North African and Mediterranean country. Amid the increasing tension between Paris and Baku, Azerbaijani-Algerian relations are becoming an important factor in promoting Azerbaijan's position in the most sensitive region for France, where it has special interests.

This is fostering interests of Algeria and other countries in more active cooperation with Azerbaijan.