Aliyev said new page opened in relations with Iran

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that his meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in November 2021 was “very successful and important and opened up new opportunities in Iran-Azerbaijan relations.”

"This means the opening of a new page in our friendly and brotherly relations," the official presidential website quoted Aliyev as saying at an online meeting with visiting Iranian Roads and Urban Development Minister Rostam Qasemi.

The president said Baku highly appreciated the Iranian delegation's visit on 24 January to the areas Azerbaijan regained in the 2020 Karabakh war and that he hoped Iranian companies would take an active part in the reconstruction of these territories.

Aliyev described the 3+3 (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia plus Turkey, Russia, Iran) regional cooperation format "very promising," saying that this platform would ensure the interests of regional countries. He also said that positive news had been coming from Armenia regarding the construction of the so-called Zangezur corridor - a transport link between mainland Azerbaijan and its exclave of Nakhchivan via southern Armenia.

On 25 January, Minister Qasemi attended the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of a new bridge over Astara River on the Azerbaijani-Iranian border. Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev said that the construction of the bridge was important for increasing traffic along the North-South transport corridor that links Iran and Russia.

Officials from Iran and Azerbaijan discuss prospects for military cooperation

The chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces and the defence minister of Azerbaijan have exchanged ideas on expanding bilateral cooperation.

"We had a productive discussion with the military minister of our Muslim brother, the Republic of Azerbaijan. We explained Iran's policy for the development of relations with its neighbours, particularly military and defence relations with Azerbaijan, in this meeting," Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri, Chief of General Staff of Iran's Armed Forces, said in Tehran with Azerbaijan's Defence Minister General Colonel Zakir Hasanov.

"The military connections between the two nations would undoubtedly increase greatly," Baqeri said. He said that such ties would offer security to both countries, and that the border between them would become a border of peace and friendship.

The Azerbaijani minister, for his part, expressed his hope that Baqeri would visit Baku soon and predicted that bilateral ties would improve significantly following the meeting.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi stated on January 26 while welcoming a team led by Zakir Hasanov that Tehran is ready to put its engineering and technological talents at the disposal of Azerbaijan.

"The Islamic Republic's strategy is wide collaboration with its neighbours, particularly Azerbaijan in the Caucasus," Raisi said, adding that economic, commercial, and transit cooperation was quickly increasing.

Hasanov viewed his conversations with Iranian authorities as beneficial to the future development of Azerbaijan-Iran relations.

Hasanov also met with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, during his visit to discuss bilateral ties and regional problems. "Due to their geopolitical location, the two nations have enormous potential and capabilities for expanding comprehensive cooperation," Ashtiani said, emphasising the need of bolstering military and security ties.

The Iranian defence minister and Azerbaijani ambassador Ali Alizada met in Tehran on January 22 to discuss the defence, military, and military-technical domains, as well as the opportunities for further increasing bilateral cooperation, exchanging knowledge and skills, and executing joint projects.