The recent meeting in Baku between President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and President Antonio Costa of the European Council offered more than a ceremonial reaffirmation of diplomatic ties. It revealed a partnership increasingly defined by energy security, geopolitical stability and the strategic connectivity linking Europe with Asia.

It is quite attractive that the dialogue between Azerbaijan and the European Union reflected a broader recalibration in Europe’s external partnerships, in particular, at a time when global tensions are strongly affecting alliances and supply chains. This once again shows that for Brussels, Azerbaijan remains an essential energy partner and a stabilising actor in the South Caucasus. Wherein for Baku, cooperation with Europe represents both an economic opportunity and a platform to reinforce its regional relevance.

Energy security at the core

Reading throughout the conversation, it appears that a central theme of the discussions was energy cooperation, which remains the backbone of the Azerbaijan–EU relationship. So the past four years have yielded its fruits, in which since the signing of the strategic energy partnership agreement with the European Commission in 2022, Azerbaijan has significantly expanded gas exports to Europe.

President Aliyev highlighted a remarkable statistic: Today, 10 members of the European Union receive gas from Azerbaijan, and the total number of countries is 16. And by this number, we are number one in the world in supplying gas by pipelines. Sixteen countries today are........

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