Category: Azer News

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.

Azerbaijan’s Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov met with Duncan Norman, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Azerbaijan.

According to the Ministry of Energy, the meeting highlighted the development of Azerbaijan-UK relations and the expansion of energy cooperation from the oil and gas sector to clean energy, decarbonization and electricity interconnections.

The solar energy project being implemented with bp in Jabrayil, as well as the electrification of oil and gas infrastructure, were described as important examples of a new stage in energy cooperation.

Particular attention was paid to expanding cooperation on green energy corridors and interconnectors. Information was provided on the development of the “Caspian-Black Sea-Europe Green Energy Corridor” project, the results of its feasibility study and international interest in the project. The sides discussed continuing expert-level consultations on the next stages of the project and the possibility of British companies participating in the process.

The work carried out under the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of clean energy transition, as well as the results of mutual visits and information exchange, were positively assessed.

The meeting also included an exchange of views on preparations for the 8th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission, the issues to be discussed and documents planned to be signed in various fields.

The sides agreed to continue joint efforts to further expand Azerbaijan-UK cooperation in energy, trade and investment through new projects.

Armenia’s Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan has said that gasoline prices in the country have increased less than on global markets.

Papoyan made the remarks while speaking to journalists.

According to the minister, imports of gasoline from Azerbaijan have prevented prices in Armenia from rising to a higher level.

‘Without alternatives, particularly Azerbaijani gasoline, the price of gasoline would have risen sharply, as it has on international markets. Compared with global markets, we are among the countries where gasoline prices have increased the least. Overall, gasoline prices have risen sharply around the world. We were buying gasoline from Azerbaijan so that its price would increase by percentages rather than several times,’ Papoyan said.

He noted that the same situation applies to the price of liquefied gas.

According to Papoyan, the availability of alternative fuel sources has affected the scale of price increases in Armenia.

German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius urged a re-evaluation of the proposed “associate member” title on Wednesday, intended to signal closer EU-Canada relations.

“Canada is a particularly close partner for Europe, which is why we are open to discussing new partnership models that would reflect the special importance of this relationship,” Stefan Kornelius told reporters. “However, we should reconsider the terminology – the label – associated with it,” he added.

Earlier, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she wanted Canada to become the EU’s first “associate member” and called for relations to be brought “to the highest level possible.”

Chinese Ambassador to Armenia Li Xinwei reportedly presented Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan with a model sailboat as a gift on August 7, according to Armenian daily Hraparak.

The gift was transferred through the protocol department of the Prime Minister’s Office, Hraparak reported, citing information from Armenia’s Corruption Prevention Commission (CPC).

According to the CPC, the model sailboat was valued at 563,133 Armenian drams, equivalent to approximately $1,547 at an exchange rate of around 364 drams per US dollar.

The reported gift was made by Li Xinwei, China’s ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Armenia

Volvo Cars plans to introduce 13 completely new car models by the end of 2030. The Swedish automaker announced the ambitious product strategy during its Capital Markets Day.

According to the company’s plans, seven new models will be developed for Western markets, while six will be aimed at customers in China. Volvo Cars intends to focus on adapting its vehicles to regional market requirements, expanding electrification and strengthening cooperation with China’s Geely Group.

Another important goal is to increase the company’s operating margin to 8%. In the second quarter of this year, the figure was just 1.1%. Volvo Cars expects to improve profitability through more efficient production and significantly lower investment costs per vehicle for many of its future models.

The company is also continuing to invest in hybrid technology. Volvo Cars has announced updated hybrid versions of the XC60 and XC90, featuring a longer electric driving range. These models will be available in Europe and the United States. The automaker believes that demand for hybrid vehicles will remain strong well into the 2030s, even as the global automotive industry gradually moves toward fully electric cars.

Volvo Cars currently employs around 42,600 people worldwide. A significant part of its production, research and development activities is based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company also has major operations in Belgium, China and the United States.

An interesting aspect of Volvo Cars’ strategy is its attempt to balance global electrification with the different needs of individual markets. While some regions are rapidly moving toward fully electric vehicles, others are still showing strong demand for hybrids and conventional powertrains.

At the same time, investors remain cautious. Since the beginning of the year, Volvo Cars shares listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange have fallen by around 40%. The company’s ability to successfully launch its new models while improving profitability will therefore be closely watched in the coming years.

?Professor of International Journalism Mikhail Gusman wrote an article for Anadolu Agency Analysis on the increasing importance of the South Caucasus in global politics and Azerbaijan’s role in the region’s new architecture.

The article examines the emerging geopolitical and economic architecture of the South Caucasus, depicting that the region is gradually moving from a conflict-centred framework towards greater emphasis on trade, transport, energy and regional cooperation. It identifies Azerbaijan’s strengthened position as a central feature of this transformation, highlighting its role as an energy supplier to Europe, transport hub and diplomatic actor maintaining ties with multiple global and regional powers.

AzerNEWS presents the article:

The South Caucasus is currently undergoing a historic period. Not only is the region’s political configuration changing, but its importance in world politics is also shifting. Until very recently, the South Caucasus was perceived primarily through the lens of conflict and antagonism. Today, however, issues such as economic development, transportation corridors, energy, trade, and regional cooperation are increasingly coming to the forefront.

Especially after the restoration of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, it has become possible to speak of the region with a completely different logic, not as a constant conflict zone, but as a potential area of cooperation.

However, the interest of major global actors in the South Caucasus is also increasing. Here, the interests of Russia, Trkiye, Iran, the European Union (EU), the United States (US), and Central Asian countries intersect. Therefore, the balance is becoming more complex and multifaceted. Rather than the absolute dominance of any one side, a new system is emerging in which the roles of the countries in the region are significantly enhanced. Azerbaijan occupies a very special place in this system.

Azerbaijan’s changing position in the region

Within this new balance of power, Azerbaijan’s position has significantly strengthened. This is not solely related to the country’s geography or energy resources. Today, Azerbaijan is increasingly emerging as an independent geopolitical actor capable of pursuing its own foreign policy while simultaneously maintaining relations with various power centers.

In recent years, there has been a very significant change in the international perception of Azerbaijan. Until recently, the country was mostly discussed outside the region in the context of the Karabakh conflict. Today, this is a completely inadequate description of Azerbaijan. The country has become a major energy partner of Europe, a significant transportation hub, and an active participant in international diplomacy. Azerbaijan has also strengthened its relations with Trkiye, Central Asia, Russia, Europe, the USA, and other states. This shows that Baku views its foreign policy not as a battleground between separate power centers, but as an opportunity to work in multiple directions simultaneously. Therefore, today, Azerbaijan’s international weight is significantly greater than what can be estimated solely from the country’s size or population.

Increased interest in the region

The ongoing war in Ukraine has significantly impacted the geopolitical system of Eurasia. As trade routes, energy flows, and logistics shift, the importance of routes enabling the transport of goods and energy outside conflict zones has increased. This has significantly heightened interest in the South Caucasus and Caspian region. Following recent developments, we see Washington attempting to play a more visible role in regional resolution processes. However, this should not be viewed solely as a struggle for influence. Ideally, the South Caucasus could become an area where the interests of different states intersect, but this intersection does not necessarily lead to conflict. The current geopolitical situation presents a unique opportunity to foster cooperation. If the countries of the region embrace trade flows through their territories, infrastructure construction, and investment, this in itself would create an additional incentive for stability.

Furthermore, if everyone is interested in the stability of transportation routes, energy security, and the development of trade, an objective incentive to support peace emerges, and Azerbaijan is in a very strong position here. Baku can talk to different power centers and advance its national interests without abandoning cooperation with different partners.

Zangezur’s key role in international trade

This new political situation in the South Caucasus also has the potential to objectively increase the role of the Middle Corridor in trade between Europe and Asia. Modern international trade needs routes that are not only cheap but also reliable, predictable, and diversified. Recent years have demonstrated very convincingly how fragile global logistics can become when major transport routes face political crises.

The Middle Corridor gains particular importance in this context. The corridor connects China and Central Asia to the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Trkiye, and then to European markets. However, infrastructure alone is not enough for trade to fully develop in the region. Political stability needs to be ensured in all the countries through which this route passes.

This is why the processes taking place in the South Caucasus today have significance far beyond the region. If the sustainable development of transport links is ensured, the Middle Corridor can become one of the most important elements of the new Eurasian logistics. Regarding increasing the capacity of the Middle Corridor, the Zangezur Corridor is potentially one of the most important elements within the entire East-West transport system. The importance of the corridor lies primarily in its ability to connect Azerbaijan more directly to Nakhchivan and then to Trkiye.

For Trkiye, this opens up additional opportunities to strengthen its role as a transit hub between Asia and Europe. For Azerbaijan, it constitutes another element in transforming the region into a significant transportation center. In this sense, the Zangezur Corridor is a project that will complement the Central Corridor. The more interconnected railway and road routes there are, the higher the overall efficiency of the entire transportation system. In this sense, the opening of the Zangezur route can give an additional impetus to the entire Central Corridor.

Strengthening the Zangezur Corridor, and consequently the Central Corridor, offers Trkiye the opportunity to significantly strengthen its economic and political presence in the geography stretching from Anatolia to Central Asia. Today, spheres of influence are increasingly built through infrastructure rather than political pronouncements. If countries share railways, highways, energy systems, trade connections, and investments, a completely different level of interdependence emerges. In this respect, Azerbaijan becomes an extremely important partner for Trkiye. Through Azerbaijan, Trkiye has the opportunity to establish a much deeper interaction with Central Asian states.

Azerbaijan-Trkiye partnership

While the phrase “one nation, two states” is a well-known formula between Azerbaijan and Trkiye, it is not solely based on the emotional and historical closeness of the two peoples. In recent years, this relationship has gained a very concrete political, economic, and strategic dimension. Trkiye has become Azerbaijan’s most important strategic partner. Azerbaijan, in turn, is of great importance to Trkiye as a state connecting Anatolia to the Caspian Sea and Central Asia. And here a very interesting structure emerges: while Trkiye gains additional opportunities to access the Caspian Sea and then Central Asia through Azerbaijan, Central Asian states also gain more convenient access to Trkiye and European markets. Thus, rather than a new military-political bloc, a new network of economic, transportation, and political connections is forming.

When it comes to states with strong historical and strategic ties, relations between leaders also gain importance. In the case of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, we see a combination of personal trust, mutual political understanding, and convergence of strategic interests. When there is trust between leaders, this significantly facilitates the making and implementation of complex decisions. Aliyev and Erdogan understand each other’s political logic very well, which is particularly important during periods of significant regional change. However, relations between the two countries are based on strong societal support and a very solid historical bond. Therefore, while the personal closeness of the leaders is an important additional factor, relations between Azerbaijan and Trkiye are based on the convergence of long-term interests.

The Shusha Declaration, in particular, constituted a crucial step in the development of relations between the two states. With its comprehensive content ranging from politics and security to economics, energy, transportation, and humanitarian cooperation, the document effectively reinforced the alliance nature of relations between Azerbaijan and Trkiye. In other words, it established a political foundation for long-term strategic interaction. The importance of the Shusha Declaration extends beyond bilateral relations because this close interaction between Azerbaijan and Trkiye inevitably affects the entire architecture of the South Caucasus and the region’s connections with Central Asia. This contributes to the development of trade relations, transportation links, and cultural and humanitarian contacts, including those within the Organization of Turkic States. Trade, transportation links, cultural and humanitarian contacts are developing among the countries of the Turkic world, and geography plays a very significant role here. Azerbaijan has a unique position between Trkiye and Central Asia, between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. Therefore, its role is naturally increasing. The most important step in this process is the development of economic relations. The more trade, transportation links, investments, and joint projects there are, the stronger the relations between the states will become. However, it is too early to say that a closed geopolitical axis has already formed here. Nevertheless, it can be said that an objective process of rapprochement is underway.

Azerbaijan’s role in the new architecture of the South Caucasus

Considering all these developments, it would not be wrong to say that Azerbaijan’s role in the South Caucasus will increasingly grow in the coming years. Moreover, Azerbaijan could become one of the most important connecting points not only in the South Caucasus, but also between Europe, the Caucasus, the Caspian region, Trkiye, and Central Asian countries. Here, we are no longer just talking about the importance of the country’s geographical location. Azerbaijan has created new infrastructure around its geography, developed energy projects, built transportation routes, and established a network of political and economic partnerships. Therefore, it is possible to say that today, geography offers an opportunity for Azerbaijan, and state policies enable this opportunity to be transformed into a real political and economic resource.

The second-round games of the 46th World Chess Olympiad, being held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, will take place on September 17.

Azerbaijan’s men’s national team will face the Philippines in this round. The team consists of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Rauf Mamedov, Aydin Suleymanli, Mahammad Muradli and Eltaj Safarli.

The women’s national team will take on Denmark. The Azerbaijani lineup includes Ulviyya Fataliyeva, Gunay Mammadzada, Govhar Beydullayeva, Khanim Balajayeva and Gulnar Mammadova.

In the first round, Azerbaijan’s men’s team defeated Morocco 4-0, while the women’s team beat Guatemala 4-0.

The World Chess Olympiad, held under the Swiss system over 11 rounds, will conclude on September 27.

A total of 1,032 chess players representing 208 teams are taking part in the Olympiad.