In the light of the growing international isolation that Israel has been facing due to boycott campaigns the Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu launched his two-day visits to Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan starting Tuesday 13/12/2016.
Netanyahu’s tour would be the first by an Israeli premier to Kazakhstan and the second to Azerbaijan.
Netanyahu said at the onset of his visit to Baku the capital of Azerbaijan that Israel is not suffering from any political isolation as many countries in Asia Africa and Latin America are seeking to strengthen their relations with Israel. He added that Israel was seeking to build new relations with important countries in the Islamic world.
“The visit aims to strengthen and renew relations with Azerbaijan which offers Israel nearly half of its oil needs” he added.
“This visit has great importance on the military level as well” he continued.
Israel and Azerbaijan signed four economic cooperation agreements and arms deals estimated at 5 billion dollars.
Economic relations with Baku
Israel comes at the top of five commercial partners of Azerbaijan in the recent years. Baku meanwhile is the largest oil supplier of Israel supplying it with 40% annually of its oil needs while Israel is considered the sixth-largest importer of Azerbaijani oil exports.
Azerbaijan oil supplies reach Israel through pipelines that run through Turkey then shipped via large oil tankers.
Azerbaijan has become one of the major importers of Israeli weapons and military expertise. In February 2012 both sides signed an agreement to the tune of 1.6 billion dollars that includes the purchase of Israeli drones and anti-aircraft missile systems.
History of the relations
Israel recognized the independence of Azerbaijan in 1993 and opened an embassy there. Since then many Israeli delegations including the prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs visited the country from 1997 to 2012
Baku on the other hand did not open an embassy in Israel fearing that Muslim countries would not vote in its favor in its conflict with Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh.
Many Azeri government officials visited Israel in the period 2002 – 2007. Moreover the national airline of Azerbaijan Azal has had regular flights to Israel since 1993 and Israelis are among a small number of passport holders eligible for visas at the Baku airport.
