The presidents of Israel and Azerbaijan met this weekend in Germany, reaffirming bilateral ties between the two countries even as the war against Hamas rages in Gaza.
The diplomatic meet on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference between Isaac Herzog and Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev highlighted the strength of the enduring relations between the Jewish state and the predominantly Shiite Muslim country.
The two leaders “exchanged views on cooperation between Azerbaijan and Israel across various areas, and touched upon economic, trade cultural and humanitarian ties,” Azerbaijani Ambassador to Israel Mukhtar Mammadov wrote in a post on X.
Last year, Azerbaijan made history by becoming the first Shiite country to open an embassy in Israel.
For Israel, ties with Azerbaijan—which shares a 428-mile border with Iran—are of strategic importance, both as a conduit for reconnaissance and because it supplies an estimated 30% of the Jewish state’s oil. At the same time, Azerbaijan is a leading purchaser of Israeli military hardware, which helped lift Baku to victory in its 2020 war with its archrival Armenia.
About 25,000-30,000 Jews live in Azerbaijan today, while tens of thousands of Jews from Azerbaijan immigrated to Israel and maintain strong ties with the Caucasus nation.
