BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Azerbaijan formally applied to join the BRICS bloc of developing countries on Tuesday, a day after The visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the oil-rich South Caucasus country to strengthen regional relations and secure Moscow’s pressured trade routes.
The announcement by the Foreign Ministry in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku came at a time when the BRICS alliance has seen a significant expansion. For more than a decade, the bloc included just five countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates joined in January, and Saudi Arabia has announced it is considering such a move.
This club already includes some of the world’s largest oil producers and generates well over a quarter of global GDP. Relations between its members Russia and Iran and the West have been strained for over a decade. Moscow’s war against Ukraine and Iran’s regional policy.
Business relations were high on the agenda during the Meeting between Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on MondayAliyev announced that $120 million would be allocated to promote freight transport between the two countries.
According to political scientist Zardusht Alizade, Putin is increasingly dependent on countries like Azerbaijan to gain access to global markets due to sanctions imposed on Moscow over its actions in Ukraine.
It is important for Azerbaijan to maintain Moscow’s goodwill amid tensions with neighboring Armenia to ensure its national security, Alizade said.
Russia has been Armenia’s long-time supporter and ally since the fall of the Soviet Union. But relations between the two countries have become increasingly strained since September 2023, when the Azerbaijani military seized control of the Karabakh region, ending three decades of ethnic Armenian separatist rule.
Armenia accused Russian peacekeepers stationed in the region of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s attack. Moscow, which maintains a military base in Armenia, argued that its troops had no mandate to intervene.
