Amid its ongoing conflict with Armenia which has been buying several weapons and defence systems from India, Azerbaijan has via a third country indicated it wants to purchase weapons from New Delhi to balance the scales.
However, the request, which came through a very friendly country, was ignored by India.
It is learnt that New Delhi has made it clear to the friendly country that India will decide its bilateral relations and priorities, and does not want any other country to be a middleman.
People familiar with the matter told that Baku never directly broached the subject with New Delhi, neither officially nor unofficially.
Instead, a third country approached India, saying that if the South Asian country wanted to export its indigenous weaponry and was looking for a long-term partner, it could look towards Azerbaijan.
People familiar with the matter told that Azerbaijan was open to matching the current deals signed by its rival Armenia with India.
Yerevan has in recent years turned to India to beef up its armed forces—amid its conflict with Azerbaijan—and purchased rocket-launchers, artillery guns, ammunition, sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles.
Armenia is looking at the possibility of procuring Astra missiles to strengthen its fleet of Sukhoi Su30 fighter aircraft, as reported.
For India, Armenia has not only been a consistent defence partner, it is also viewed as a political partner in the region and has close ties with France.
Another Indian strategic partner—Greece—may send its obsolete Russian weaponry to Armenia to help boost its defence capabilities, as a part of a potential axis with India in the region.
Yerevan has also been a strong supporter of India’s position on Jammu and Kashmir.
India, France and Greece are all looking towards supporting Armenia’s security capabilities. In comparison, Azerbaijan is perceived to be a part of a growing grouping of countries including Türkiye and Pakistan.
Since 2017, Baku, Ankara and Islamabad have been focusing on deepening trilateral cooperation. In July this year, the leaders of the three countries held a trilateral summit on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Kazakhstan, while Baku has as recently as 2023 backed Islamabad’s position on Jammu and Kashmir.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been fierce rivals since the territorial dispute in Nagorno-Karabakh. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the ethnic Armenians in the region declared themselves as the “Republic of Artsakh”, which received no recognition from any country in the world, including Armenia.
The two countries fought two wars over it, with Azerbaijan using loitering munitions and drones purchased from Turkey to great effect during the 2020 conflict. In September 2023, Baku, through a swift military operation, regained the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Economic & business ties amid geopolitical jockeying
Diplomatic ties aside, Baku remains an important tourist destination for Indians, and has received investment from India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in its oil fields and pipelines.
Azerbaijan is the largest economy in the South Caucasus region, with a gross domestic product of $75.6 billion. In 2023, economic trade between Azerbaijan and India stood at $1.435 billion, which is the largest in the region for New Delhi. India is Azerbaijan’s seventh largest trading partner and the third largest destination for Azeri crude oil.
Earlier this year, ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL)—the wholly owned subsidiary of ONGC—increased its stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oil fields and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, buying out the stake of Norway’s Equinor for $60 million.
The recent purchase adds to its already existing stake of around 2.36 per cent in the ACG oil fields, first purchased by OVL in 2013 for $1 billion. Around 70 percent of OVL’s parent company—ONGC—is owned by the Government of India either directly or indirectly.
In 2017, the consortium of partners in the ACG oil fields announced an extension of the production sharing agreement (PSA) with Azeri government till 2049.
In comparison, trade between India and Armenia stood at $134 million in 2023, which is roughly one-tenth of the economic partnership between New Delhi and Baku during the same period.
There are currently no direct flights between India and Armenia, while there are 14 weekly flights connecting Baku with New Delhi and Mumbai. The visa regime in Azerbaijan has also made it a tourist hotspot for Indians.
Between January and December 2023, roughly 1,17,000 Indians visited the country.
In the first ten months of 2024, that number grew to about 2,01,000.
See insights
Boost a post
Like
Comment
Send
Share
