By Mohsen Pak Ayeen*
Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov held talks with his Iranian counterpart as well as President Raeisi during a visit to Tehran on Wednesday.
The president voiced Iran’s readiness to share technical and engineering capabilities with Azerbaijan as he called for bolstering bilateral cooperation.
Hasanov said his meetings in Tehran were positive for future cooperation and invited Iranian Defense Minister Mohammadreza Ashtiani to visit Baku.
Hasanov’s visit to Tehran is important as it shows the high level of trust between the two neighbors.
When defense officials of two countries meet, it usually implies that relations and cooperation in political, economic and cultural spheres are fairly solid. Based on such solid and trustworthy ties, defense officials sit down for talks over defense and security cooperation.
The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan have gone through ups and downs in the history of their relationship, though it has been mainly marked with ups rather than downs.
Iran has cultural, historical, political and economic commonalities with all its neighbors. But Azerbaijan is more outstanding than other neighbors as it shares most cultural and historical commonalities with Iran. Therefore, Tehran-Baku relations have always been significant.
Tehran and Baku have had differences of opinion over the past two years, especially in the wake of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, which were fueled by external factors.
The Zionist regime of Israel has been trying to secure a foothold in the Central Asian region since the early years after the break-up of the Soviet Union and has thrown wrenches to prevent Iran and Azerbaijan from enhancing cooperation.
However, it seems that the top officials of the two countries have been able to handle disagreements quite well and have not given room to opportunist external factors to take advantage of situations.
The two neighbors resolved their differences after Azerbaijan’s First Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev traveled to Tehran in November last year and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian visited Baku two months later.
After Mustafayev’s trip to Tehran, Azerbaijani media reported that the volume of trade between the two countries from March to December last year increased by 22% compared to the same period a year before.
Amir-Abdollahian, after meeting Azerbaijan’s president and his counterpart, said at the time that Tehran and Baku opened a new chapter in their ties and that Tehran was ready to implement previous agreements and sign new ones.
Taking into account the visit of Rostam Qasemi, Iran’s roads and urban development minister, to Azerbaijan which coincided with Hasanov’s trip to Tehran, one would come to the conclusion that the two nations are trying to diversify their relations. Not only do they want to strengthen political relations, but also they seek to organize cultural, economic and defense spheres of mutual relationships.
Economically, Tehran and Baku have many commonalities and capacities, which can be activated via reciprocal visits of officials to yield benefits to both nations. The two neighbors also share concerns on terrorism, trafficking and regional security.
The visit of Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister to Tehran confirms what Iran’s foreign minister has said: a new chapter of relations between the two countries has already started.
*Mohsen Pak Ayeen is a Tehran-based foreign policy expert and Iran’s former ambassador to Azerbaijan.
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