Azerbaijan and Israel Pursue Partnership

Azerbaijan's growing ties with Israel illustrate the extent to which this Caspian Sea energy player is striving to keep the options open for regional alliances.

On August 15-18, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Liberman paid an official visit to Azerbaijan to explore what were termed mutual political and economic interests.

"Azerbaijan is [an] interesting and [a] strategic country for Israel," commented Liberman at the end of his visit, APA news agency reported.
The strategic benefits work both ways. While Israel sees Azerbaijan as a potential ally among Muslim countries and a key energy supplier, Azerbaijan is interested in investments by Israeli companies and in support from Jewish communities abroad to promote Azerbaijani interests with Western governments.

In particular, Liberman highlighted potential purchases of Azerbaijani oil and gas. Israel is one of the largest purchasers of Azerbaijani hydrocarbons. Annual trade turnover between the two countries, largely driven by oil, stands at about $1 billion, according to the Azerbaijani foreign ministry.

"It is one of the highest levels of Azerbaijan's trade turnover with other countries. We intend to increase it in future," commented ministry spokesperson Khazar Ibragim. With that aim in mind, during Liberman's three-day visit talks were held on cooperation in agriculture, information technologies, tourism and environmental protection, news agencies reported.

Israel currently imports much of its oil and gas via a pipeline that extends from Ashkelon on the Mediterranean coast to Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba and leads into the Red Sea. In April 2006, Tel Aviv and Ankara announced plans to carry water, electricity, natural gas and oil to Israel by way of a proposed Ceyhan-Ashkelon-Eilat passage. Such a corridor would allow for the shipment of Caspian and Central Asian oil and gas to the Middle East while bypassing Russia entirely. Observers believe that to avoid difficulties with other Muslim countries Azerbaijan will keep the stress on economic and cultural ties with Israel, and steer clear of the political. Azerbaijan currently chairs the influential Organization of Islamic Conference, made up of 57 Muslim countries – a position which makes its ties with Israel open to additional scrutiny.

Political analyst Zardusht Alizadeh, a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs, considers relations between Azerbaijan and Israel "cloud-free" for now, but notes that Muslim states in the region will expect Baku eventually to show its hand, particularly in regard to the Palestinian territories. Any response, he notes, must be even-handed.

"Although Baku is continuing its balanced policy, Azerbaijan's position is delicate," commented Alizadeh. "Baku should reject its middle-of-the-road attitude and condemn the terrorism and radicalism that exists on both sides." [Zardusht Alizadeh is on the board of the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation - Azerbaijan. EurasiaNet operates under the auspices of the Open Society Institute in New York].

Part of that delicacy stems from the fact that Baku is also casting its sights on the Jewish Diaspora, and its links with Azerbaijan's Jewish community of roughly 9,000 people. In an August 15 interview with APA news agency, Natan Sharansky, who formerly handled Jewish Diaspora policy as an Israeli cabinet minister, termed conditions for Jews within Muslim Azerbaijan as "very significant for us."

In turn, the Azerbaijani government has used those links to lobby for a favorable hearing for Azerbaijan's case against the current ban on aid to Azerbaijan under Article 907 of the Freedom Support Act. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ibragim termed the role of the Jewish Diaspora on this issue, among others, as "constructive and positive."

While subject to potential criticism, that campaign is all part of Baku's foreign policy balancing act, he continued. "Azerbaijan builds its foreign policy pursuing its own national interests and taking into account subtleties and realities existing in the region and in the world in general."