Category: Azer News

China’s proposal at the 2026 BRICS Summit in New Delhi to establish a BRICS AI Open-Source Zone offers one possible direction. The initiative, presented by President Xi Jinping, includes cooperation in large language model development and applications, AI training and the creation of an open ecosystem. China also proposed cooperation on a digital industry cloud platform, smart factories and an engineer training alliance, alongside efforts to build greater international consensus on AI governance.

The significance of open-source artificial intelligence lies in the possibility of reducing dependence on a limited number of proprietary platforms. Commercial AI services can be useful, but their pricing, technical restrictions, data policies and availability may limit how institutions in developing countries use them.

Open-weight models, when their parameters are made available under appropriate licences, can provide researchers and organisations with greater opportunities to adapt technology to local needs. They may support applications in languages that receive less attention from major commercial developers, improve local research capacity and enable institutions to experiment without relying exclusively on external service providers.

The expansion of Chinese models, including Qwen, DeepSeek, Kimi and GLM, has contributed to a more competitive international AI landscape. These systems differ in their technical capabilities, licensing arrangements and commercial models, and they should be assessed individually rather than treated as a single category. Nevertheless, the broader development of open-weight AI has created new possibilities for institutions outside the traditional centres of technological power.

For the Global South, the value of these technologies will not be measured only by benchmark results. It will also depend on whether universities can use them for research, whether businesses can deploy them at manageable costs and whether public institutions can develop reliable applications for education, healthcare, agriculture and public services.

Consider a university in Pakistan, Kenya or Brazil seeking to build an AI tool for local-language education. Access to an adaptable model could reduce some initial development barriers. But the university would still need computing resources, quality training data, technical expertise and safeguards against inaccurate or discriminatory outputs. Open-source availability is therefore a starting point, not a complete development strategy.

BRICS countries possess different levels of industrial capacity, research expertise, digital infrastructure and regulatory experience.

The proposed AI training programmes and engineer alliance are potentially important in this regard. Technical education can help ensure that access to models translates into domestic capacity. Without a skilled workforce, developing countries may remain dependent on foreign companies for deployment, maintenance and system integration.

The Global South Needs a Voice in AI Governance

The BRICS AI proposal arrives amid wider disagreements over how artificial intelligence should be governed. Governments are concerned about economic competitiveness, cybersecurity, privacy, employment and the possibility of autonomous systems causing harm. Technology companies, meanwhile, are navigating rapidly changing regulations and significant commercial pressures.

Developing countries face additional concerns. Many have limited capacity to monitor sophisticated AI systems, investigate digital harms or develop their own regulatory institutions. They may also face the risk of being excluded from decisions about international standards that will affect their economies.

A broader AI governance framework should therefore involve countries beyond the most technologically advanced economies. The principle of inclusion is important, but representation must be accompanied by substantive participation in technical discussions and policy formation.

China’s proposal can contribute to this conversation without requiring other countries to adopt a single technological or regulatory model. BRICS members should be able to evaluate different approaches and cooperate where interests overlap.

The initiative could also support applications linked to sustainable development. AI has potential uses in agricultural forecasting, energy management, disaster preparedness and public health. Yet these benefits depend on reliable data, institutional capacity and responsible implementation. Technology alone cannot resolve structural development problems.

For Pakistan, participation in international AI cooperation should be approached with a clear domestic agenda. Investment in universities, computing infrastructure, technical training and local-language datasets would help ensure that the country can contribute to, rather than merely consume, global technological progress.

The future of open-source AI will ultimately depend on trust. Developers need to address security risks, governments need to support fair access, and users need sufficient information to make informed decisions.

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The author is the Chairman of the Belt and Road Initiative for Sustainable Development (BRISD) and is a financial systems analyst focused on reserve currencies, central banking arrangements, and the structural dynamics of international monetary order.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced his intention to introduce two government bills targeting those he believes spread defamation about Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers.

According to The Times of Israel, the first bill would provide for the possibility of revoking Israeli citizenship for such statements. The second would increase by 20 times the maximum compensation that can be claimed in a defamation lawsuit without the need to prove damages – up to 1 million shekels ($310,000).

The trigger was a scandal surrounding the documentary “Naza” by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. The film received a Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and is based on anonymous testimonies from 24 soldiers and intelligence officers. They claim that during operations in Gaza, the command factored in anticipated civilian casualties in advance.

Benjamin Netanyahu accused the filmmakers of portraying Israeli soldiers as war criminals.

A Channel 12 source in the IDF said that the discussion had shifted from the content of the painting to Israel’s accusations of restricting freedom of speech.

Current Israeli legislation already allows citizenship to be revoked in rare cases, particularly for committing a terrorist act or treason. This requires the Minister of the Interior to submit a request, the Minister of Justice to approve it, and a court to confirm the decision.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday that the Trump administration did not notify the Kremlin about deploying weapons in space.

He warned that “it’s all being monitored, it’s all being recorded, and the appropriate conclusions are being drawn.”

Earlier this week, US Air Force Secretary Troy Meink confirmed that the US deployed “on-orbit space control weapons,” without going into detail. Ryabkov said that an arms race, as well as “growing risks of open conflict in outer space,” can still be avoided. However, he also said that the deployment of US weapons cannot harm bilateral strategic stability contacts, “because such a dialogue does not exist.”

Azerbaijan actively cooperates with OTS member states in a bilateral format, President Ilham Aliyev said during his meeting with security officials from OTS member states.

‘We have established joint investment funds with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan,’ the head of state noted, adding that the process of attracting and mobilizing mutual investments is actively ongoing.

President Ilham Aliyev also emphasized: ‘In other words, our country’s bilateral agenda is primarily oriented toward the countries of the Turkic world. As I have repeatedly stated in my public speeches, this is our main foreign policy priority. Among other things, I have said that the Turkic world is our family, and we have no other family.’

Leaked charges against Iryna Mudra, deputy head of Ukraine’s President’s Office, allegedly identify her superior as the organizer of a money laundering scheme intended to provide bail for former Energy and Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko, according to Ukrainian media.

The leaked text of the charges, published by Bihus.info late on September 15, does not name the official. It describes the person as a senior official of the President’s Office and Mudra’s direct superior.

According to the document, the official allegedly instructed Mudra to launder cash to cover Halushchenko’s bail and subsequently supervised her actions in the scheme uncovered by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).

Bihus.info reported that the description appears to correspond to Kyrylo Budanov, head of the President’s Office, as Mudra reportedly has only one direct superior in the office.

The report also cited alleged transcripts of NABU recordings published by Hromadske in August. The transcripts reportedly contain several references to ‘Kyrylo,’ ‘Kyrylo Oleksiyovich,’ Mudra’s unnamed superior and a senior President’s Office official. Budanov’s surname is also reportedly mentioned directly in the transcripts.

Asked by Hromadske on August 27 about alleged references to him in the recordings, Budanov said: ‘Let the court sort it out. You know, (my name) comes up in a lot of places.’

The allegations come amid a broader corruption investigation by NABU involving senior Ukrainian officials. The leaked charging document itself does not name Budanov as the alleged organizer, and the reported identification is based on the description of Mudra’s superior and the media’s comparison with the leaked recordings.

The Kyiv Independent said it had requested comments from the President’s Office, Budanov and Mudra. NABU declined to comment.

Azerbaijan’s population reached 10,276,566 as of August 1, 2026, increasing by 14,215 people, or 0.14 percent, since the start of the year.

It was reflected in a publication by the State Statistical Committee containing macroeconomic indicators of the country’s economic and social development for January-August 2026.

According to the State Committee for Affairs of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, 39,269 former internally displaced people had returned to the liberated territories by August 31 under the First State Program on the Great Return to the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan liberated from occupation, approved by a presidential order dated November 16, 2022.

As a result, the total number of people living, working and studying in the liberated territories has reached 93,203.

Urban residents account for 54.3 percent of Azerbaijan’s population, while 45.7 percent live in rural areas. Men make up 49.8 percent of the population and women 50.2 percent.

In January-July, 48,954 births were registered by district and city civil registration offices under the Ministry of Justice. Compared with the same period last year, the birth rate per 1,000 people fell from 9.2 to 8.2.

Of the babies born during the period, 53.4 percent were boys and 46.6 percent were girls. A total of 1,696 twin births and 60 sets of triplets were recorded.

Meanwhile, 35,829 deaths were registered in the first seven months of the year. The death rate increased from 5.9 to 6.0 per 1,000 people compared with the same period in 2025.

The number of Russian military personnel killed in the war against Ukraine could approach one million over five years of full-scale fighting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with CBS News.

Zelenskyy said he expects the Russian military to lose another 300,000 personnel by the end of 2026.

He attributed Russia’s continued military campaign to what he described as insufficient pressure from Russian society on President Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy said public discontent was beginning to emerge but had not yet reached a level he believed would force the Kremlin to change course.

According to the Ukrainian president, Putin does not want peace but is seeking a way to end the war that could be presented to the Russian public as a victory.

Zelenskyy also argued that concerns about the consequences of returning soldiers could be among the factors influencing Putin’s approach to a ceasefire.

‘If one million people return home feeling defeated and angry, the consequences will be much louder,’ Zelenskyy said.

He referred to the 2023 mutiny by fighters from the Wagner private military company, which he said involved around 5,000 fighters at the time, as an example of the potential consequences of dissatisfaction among armed personnel.

Zelenskyy said Russia’s minimum objective was the complete occupation of Donetsk Oblast. He added that Russian authorities present the goal to the population as achievable while repeatedly extending the expected timeline for its capture.

The casualty figures cited by Zelenskyy differ from other assessments. According to an assessment by British intelligence cited in the report, at least 500,000 Russian military personnel have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Neither figure represents an independently verified count of Russian military deaths.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev addressed the participants of the Fifth Meeting of the Secretaries of the Security Councils of the member states of the Organization of Turkic States.

“Dear participants of the event,

I extend my heartfelt greetings to you on the occasion of the Fifth Meeting of the Secretaries of the Security Councils of the member states of the Organization of Turkic States in the city of Baku. Welcome to Azerbaijan! It is a source of great satisfaction that this prestigious event is being organized in Azerbaijan for the first time.

Common ethnic roots, language, culture, and traditions unite our brotherly peoples as one strong family. Formalizing our natural alliance, the Organization of Turkic States stands as a vivid example of the unity and effective cooperation of our friendly and brotherly countries, spanning a broad geography and possessing vast political and economic potential.

Today, the Turkic world has entered a period of development. The conditions of peace, tranquility, and stability prevailing in our countries, along with the successfully pursued development processes, represent a great achievement for our peoples and states.

Six years ago, Azerbaijan’s Garabagh Victory-our shared source of pride and honor-laid the foundation for a new geopolitical reality in the region. At the same time, this Victory paved the way for the realization of the Zangezur Corridor-a historical gateway connecting our countries economically, logistically, and strategically. Taking this opportunity, I express my gratitude to the countries you represent for the support provided in the reconstruction and restoration of our liberated territories. These initiatives are met with deep appreciation and gratitude by the Azerbaijani people.

Our unwavering friendship and brotherhood are among the primary factors defining the growing international standing and potential of our united family-the Organization of Turkic States-and the Organization’s transformation into one of the world’s powerful geopolitical centers.

Within the framework of its chairmanship of the Organization of Turkic States, Azerbaijan spares no effort to further strengthen unity and solidarity among our countries, realize the broad potential of our cooperation, and contribute to the sustainable development, peace, and security of our region as a whole. The Declaration adopted at last year’s Gabala Summit serves as an important roadmap encompassing close cooperation and integration among member states in the political, economic, energy, humanitarian, military, and security spheres.

Under our chairmanship, we are striving to develop the Middle Corridor-a vital transport and logistics project connecting Europe and Asia that contributes to the prosperity of the Turkic states-including the Zangezur Corridor and other transport links.

One of the landmark events coinciding with our chairmanship of the Organization of Turkic States is the holding of Turkic World Week in Azerbaijan, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the First Turkological Congress.

Taking this opportunity, I express my deep respect to the esteemed leaders of the Organization’s member states and convey my gratitude for their addresses to the Congress and for their continuous support for the efforts of the Republic of Azerbaijan’s chairmanship of the Organization of Turkic States.

Dear participants of the event,

In the modern world, alongside traditional threats, new challenges to humanity-including cyber threats-are emerging, new hotbeds of instability are forming, and a crisis of international law is being observed. All of these make it imperative to define our shared agenda for addressing regional and global problems, formulate our unified stance on crucial issues, and coordinate our activities across all areas. The military exercises we conduct on a bilateral basis contribute to our cooperation in the field of defense, vividly reaffirming once again the strategic nature of our interstate relations.

Cooperation between the security councils of the member states of the Organization of Turkic States demonstrates that the integration process of the Turkic world is not limited merely to the political, economic, and cultural spheres, but also has a long-term strategic character.

The regular gathering of the Secretaries of the Security Councils to exchange views on topical security issues is of exceptional importance in terms of identifying common global and regional threats and risks and exploring ways to neutralize them. Elevating the security dialogue across the space of the Organization of Turkic States to an entirely new level, it serves to help form a common security architecture. Indeed, issues such as combating international terrorism, transboundary organized crime, illicit drug trafficking, religious extremism, hybrid threats, and protecting critical infrastructure are matters that no single state can resolve alone. For this reason, as a vital coordination mechanism, a great responsibility rests upon the security councils.

I am confident that the discussions to be held on the important issues on the agenda during the Meeting, as well as the initiatives and proposals to be put forward, will make a significant contribution to the peace and secure future of our countries, turning the Turkic world into a more resilient and unshakable force in the face of global threats.

I wish the Meeting every success.”

Ursula von der Leyen does not usually use the annual State of the European Union speech to make such announcements about funding freight corridors. However, the fact that she chose to do it this year and pledged to mobilize up to pound 12 billion in funding [the biggest yet] for what the EU is now calling the Middle Corridor from the South Caucasus and Central Asia all the way to European markets is a testament more to how the strategic thinking regarding the route has changed since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia than to the EU’s newfound interest in logistics.

“Our goal is to diversify routes, triple trade flows and significantly reduce cargo transit times by 2030,” von der Leyen told the European Parliament, framing the money as part of the EU’s broader Global Gateway strategy, the infrastructure-investment vehicle that has already mobilised more than pound 306bn worldwide since 2021, hitting its original pound 300bn target two years ahead of schedule. A regional connectivity summit, co-hosted with Bulgaria, is meant to convert the pledge into concrete projects.

It should not be forgotten how recently the Middle Corridor did not matter at all. Volumes of cargo transported on the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, which is officially called the Middle Corridor nowadays, were only 0.6- 0.8 million tonnes annually during 2019-2021, a rounding figure in global transportation terms. By 2024, the figure grew up to 4.5 million tonnes already, almost a sixfold growth within three years, and cargo volumes of transit via Azerbaijan alone, by road, rail, air, and sea transport, amounted to 9.1m tonnes in the first seven months of 2026, marking a 11.6% growth year on year, the highest since 2021. At the same time, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have started to forecast another threefold growth of 2024 volumes till 2030, which coincidentally happens to be the same target set in Brussels.

Even the stance taken by the EU itself has shifted similarly.

It was only last year that European officials in Brussels were reportedly conflicted about taking an option that is heavily linked to the interests of Chinese BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) projects. Evidently, that conflict has been resolved. The rating agency Moody’s recently cited the increase in shipping risks in the Strait of Hormuz as an additional indicator of the strategic importance of Caspian and South Caucasus options, thus reaffirming what the Europeans themselves had learned from Red Sea disturbances and the loss of the Russian land link. Perhaps resilience is now a rival to cost as an option criteria, and land links that circumvent Moscow and Gulf bottlenecks are insurance routes.

The concrete expression of that change in direction can be seen through the operation of Baku’s Alat terminal, located about 70km away from the capital, where in the previous year 8.2m tonnes of cargo and 107,000 TEU of containers were transported, comfortably exceeding its previous 15m tonnes capacity limit and resulting in an expansion project to a capacity of 25m tonnes and 500,000 TEU of containers that was approved by Aliyev in December 2024. The volume of container handling increased by another 20% year-to-date in the first seven months of 2026 to 72,370 TEU, and dry cargo handling increased by 82% to 1.4m tonnes. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, in turn, has been expanding its yearly capacity from 1m to 5m tonnes as a result of the reconstruction of its Georgian section and experienced a 35% surge in its traffic per week in March due to unusual demand levels. In 11 months of 2025, Azerbaijan Railways operated 350 block trains from China, increasing the level of 2024 by 34%.

The EBRD separately estimates that roughly pound 18.5bn is needed just for Central Asia’s share of transport infrastructure linked to the corridor, which puts the EU’s pound 12bn in useful perspective: substantial, genuinely additive, but still a partial answer to a considerably larger bill. And yet the declared objective of the EU, namely trebling the traffic volume while reducing transit times, is not something that can be achieved through railroad development alone. This is precisely what the EU understands very well. Indeed, transit times between China and Europe via this route have decreased from 45-50 days in 2018 to 15-19 days now, due at least in part to the digitalization of customs and border processes rather than faster trains. In order to achieve a trebling of cargo volume by 2030, it is necessary to tackle more difficult issues, such as harmonizing tariffs and data exchange through a route crossing no fewer than six sovereign customs territories: Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and others. Bottlenecks of physical nature are thus an easy issue compared to the challenge of persuading six governments to recognize one electronic transit document.

Azerbaijan’s stake in the outcome

International cargo transportation is already one of Azerbaijan’s principal sources of non-oil revenue, and the country captures roughly 63% of current TITR traffic passing through its territory. Every additional euro Brussels commits to route diversification, tariff harmonisation or port capacity translates fairly directly into higher transit receipts, one more reason regional peace, which directly affects cargo volumes and investor confidence alike, sits so close to the top of Baku’s own strategic priorities. The EU’s pound 12bn is, in that light, not simply a gift to Central Asian connectivity. It is a down payment on a South Caucasus that Brussels increasingly needs to function as smoothly as any highway on its own continent.

Greece’s planned pound 3 billion ‘Achilles Shield’ air-defense program is facing renewed scrutiny over the involvement of Israeli defense companies and concerns surrounding surveillance, sovereignty and dependence on foreign technology.

The program is being developed largely around systems supplied by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael. IAI’s involvement has drawn particular attention because of its previous links to Cytrox, the company associated with Predator spyware.

According to Greek newspaper Documento, IAI held a 31 percent stake in Cytrox in 2017, the year the company developed Predator spyware. The spyware was later used to target a Greek journalist and senior officials in a surveillance scandal widely known as ‘Greek Watergate.’

IAI has since sold its stake in Cytrox and has said that its cyber-technology activities are limited to defensive applications.

The company’s role in the Achilles Shield program has nevertheless revived concerns among critics in Greece over the use of Israeli technology in sensitive military infrastructure.

Moshe Patel, head of Israel’s Missile Defense Organization, told Greek daily Kathimerini that Greece would not receive the source code covered by the agreement’s license. Israel would instead continue to provide technical support and maintenance for the systems.

The arrangement has prompted questions about Greece’s technological dependence on Israeli defense companies, particularly regarding long-term control and maintenance of critical elements of the country’s air-defense infrastructure.

Critics have also raised concerns about the level of public scrutiny and transparency surrounding the pound 3 billion program, amid broader debate in Greece over surveillance practices and the country’s military and logistical cooperation with Israel and the United States.

The reported links between IAI and Cytrox do not establish that the Achilles Shield systems themselves incorporate Predator spyware or related surveillance technology. The concerns instead center on IAI’s corporate history and the broader implications of relying on an Israeli company for critical defense infrastructure.