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Originally published at Tsionizm.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrived in Azerbaijan last Wednesday for a two-day official visit, reports the Azerbaijani online news outlet Axar.az. The head of state was welcomed at Baku’s Heydar Aliyev International Airport by Azerbaijan’s Deputy Prime Minister Samir Sharifov, and other officials. Axar.az said Herzog is attending the seventh summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA).
The agenda of the visit includes discussion of peace and security issues in the region, dialogue between the two countries as well as cooperation in economic and humanitarian areas. A meeting with President Ilham Aliyev is also expected. No official readout of the talks had been published at the time of writing.
President Herzog last visited Azerbaijan in May 2023, when he was received by President Aliyev at the presidential residence in Zagulba. The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran, with which Azerbaijan shares a 670 km border, loomed large over the trip, which took place just weeks after Azerbaijan opened its first embassy in Israel in March 2023. President Aliyev and President Herzog met again in Davos on January 21, 2026, where, according to Azerbaijan’s presidency, they discussed expanding cooperation in the economic, trade and energy sectors.
Herzog termed the relations with President Aliyev “strategically vital” to Israel and characterized both countries as “two anchors of stability” in the region, the Azerbaijani news site Caliber.Az reported.
Israel recognized Azerbaijan’s independence in December 1991, and diplomatic relations were established in April 1992. The main area of cooperation is the field of energy. Crude oil from the Azerbaijani fields is pumped to the port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline which started operations in 2006. According to ship-tracking data reported in January, Azerbaijan supplied Israel with about 94,000 barrels of oil per day, roughly 46% of its total crude oil imports. Reuters reported in January that Israel’s imports of Azerbaijani oil via Turkey jumped despite the trade ban imposed by Ankara.
Israel also supplies a considerable portion of Azerbaijan’s weaponry. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), from 2016 to 2020 Israel supplied 69 percent of Azerbaijan’s major arms imports.
The defense relationship is also tied to Nagorno-Karabakh. This region is internationally recognized as part of the Republic of Azerbaijan but for decades has been under control of ethnic Armenian forces. In September 2020, Azerbaijan started a war to regain control of the region. After 44 days of fighting a Russia-brokered ceasefire was reached on 9 November 2020. Under its terms Armenia handed back surrounding districts and Russian peacekeepers deployed to the Karabakh region. The Times of Israel has reported that Israeli-made drones and loitering munitions were used by Azerbaijani forces. During Herzog’s 2023 visit, the Times of Israel reported, Aliyev thanked Israel for its arms supplies.
Azerbaijan launched its new military campaign on Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19, 2023. Within days Armenian forces of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh were disarmed, and this entity was liquidated. More than 100,000 of 120,000 ethnic Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh fled to Armenia within ten days of the start of the military action. Today Nagorno-Karabakh is fully under the administration of Azerbaijan.
Since then, the two countries have moved toward a peace agreement. On August 8, 2025, the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a joint declaration during a summit hosted by US President Donald Trump. The Foreign Ministers of both countries then initialed a draft agreement, however, the agreement has not been signed yet. Baku insists that the agreement can be signed only after constitutional changes in Armenia.
Turkey, Azerbaijan’s closest ally, has cut trade with Israel, and relations between Ankara and Jerusalem have worsened. Azerbaijani oil shipments to Israel have continued.
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