As Ednews informed that Hikmet Hajiyev, the Head of the Department of Foreign Policy Affairs of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, is on a visit to Brussels, Belgium. H. Hajiyev met with NATO officials and Assistant Secretary General David Cutler.
NATO Assistant Secretary General David Cutler shared information on Twitter about the issues he discussed with Hikmet Hajiyev, the Head of the Department of Foreign Policy Affairs of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan:
"Azerbaijan and NATO benefit from our cooperation in a number of areas, including security, defense reforms and counter-terrorism."
Whilst commenting on the meeting between H. Hajiyev and NATO officials’ historian and political analyst, author of books on Britain, Turkiye, and South Caucasus, Dr. Patrick Walsh said to Ednews that there is very little chance that Azerbaijan would become a full member of NATO in the foreseeable future:
“For one thing this would be against the rules of the Non Aligned Movement of which Ilham Aliyev is President. Azerbaijan has had a balanced foreign policy as a friend to the West and a good neighbour to Russia and joining NATO would upset this balance. Russia would see this as a hostile act and it must be borne in mind that Moscow is the guarantor of the Trilateral Agreement. It has invaded two countries, Georgia and Ukraine, who were earmarked for NATO membership. Azerbaijan stands out as a successful state because it has avoided the paths of Georgia and Ukraine and the other path of Armenia, which is a virtual dependency of Russia.”
He thinks that Armenia would face similar hostility from Moscow if it attempted to join NATO:
“Obviously that would mean an end to CSTO membership, which the Kremlin would not take kindly to. However, Yerevan may be tempted to do this in a desperate attempt to escape dependency on Russia. However, Turkiye would have a veto on Armenia's membership and therefore could exact a high price on accepting any bid. So this looks unlikely.”
P. Walsh considers that the Caspian Sea was the only water in the world on which the Royal Navy had never sailed when Britain occupied Baku in 1918. It is very unlikely a Western navy will ever appear there:
“The logistics are just too difficult and there would be threats to shipping from both Russia and Iran. China would also have problems with this as Eurasian development involves the Caspian. At present, the Black Sea is a much more important prize for NATO and that is what the Ukraine war is largely about from a geopolitical point of view.”
“I believe that discussions with NATO are important because of Turkiye's membership and the usefulness of an insurance policy required in the event of hostile acts by either Russia or Iran. This is a natural part of a balanced policy in which friendly relations can be maintained with both geopolitical spheres and dependency avoided on one or the other. There are also military advantages to be had through collaboration in some aspects of military practice as was shown by the experience of the second Karabakh war," political analyst concluded.
Ulviyya Shahin
