How Baku made a bad bargain backing terror in Kashmir – Firstpost

“Boycott Azerbaijan” has been gaining traction in India for the last few days amidst Azerbaijan’s open and unconditional support for Pakistan in its proxy war and recent attacks against India in the first week of May. The Confederation of Indian Traders (CAIT) has given a clarion call to halt trade with Azerbaijan. By expressing solidarity with Islamabad, Baku proves that it has no sympathy for the victims of terrorism and brazenly lends support to a rogue and terrorist state.

It is essential to highlight here that Azerbaijan is the third country after Pakistan and Turkey that raises the Kashmir issue. Last year, two crucial visits from Azerbaijan to Pakistan, one by President Ilham Aliyev in July (his second visit in 7 years) and the other by Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in May, sparked debates in Indian policy-making circles. Both the top Azeri leaders not only raked up the Jammu and Kashmir issue during their subsequent trips but also supported Pakistan’s stand on the Kashmir issue.

Top Azeri leaders, diplomats, think tanks, human rights organisations and social media arms (especially YouTube channels) have not only subscribed to Pakistan’s position on Jammu and Kashmir but also raised this issue at many local, regional, bilateral, multilateral and global platforms. In the last half a dozen years, Baku has been vocal about the Jammu and Kashmir issue, especially in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meetings, conferences, and programmes.

However, Baku’s support for Islamabad will not augur well for Azerbaijan, particularly its billion-dollar bilateral trade with India. As per the report of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, by 2023, India was the seventh largest trading partner for Azerbaijan (with the balance of bilateral trade in Baku’s favour), the third largest destination of Azerbaijani crude oil and the largest source of tourists for Azerbaijan. Besides, Azerbaijan is India’s largest trade partner among the countries surrounding the South Caucasus.

Azerbaijan is perhaps attached to Pakistan because it was one of the first countries in the world to recognise Azerbaijan as an independent nation after the disintegration of the former Soviet Union and the creation of new independent republics in 1991-1992. Further, Pakistan was one of the first nations to establish diplomatic ties with Azerbaijan just a few months after its independence.

But their bilateral relationship has become more robust and meaningful in the last five years, notably after Pakistan extended unflinching support to Azerbaijan during the Nagorno-Karabakh war (2020). According to some sources, Pakistan had provided moral, political and material support to Azerbaijan during the war. According to Ilham Aliyev, Pakistan’s support to Baku during the Nagorno-Karabakh war “gave us more power”. Azerbaijan credits Turkey and Pakistan for their victory against Armenia. One factor that has brought both countries closer is Pakistan’s non-acceptance and non-recognition of Armenia as an independent nation even after three decades of independence.

The intimacy between Pakistan and Azerbaijan has elevated to the level of the relationship between “brothers” and “friends”. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, during the signing of a joint statement between the two countries in July 2024, called Aliyev a “brother president”, exemplifying the personal rapport between both leaders. Even Aliyev had developed a personal bond with Shehbaz’s brother and former Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, who used to call Aliyev a “sincere friend”. Shehbaz Sharif’s meeting with Aliyev in Baku four months later, in November 2024, on the sidelines of the COP29, added more feathers to this relationship.

Aliyev’s visit to Islamabad last year was crucial because it followed the inaugural Pakistan-Turkey-Azerbaijan trilateral summit in Astana (Kazakhstan) in July 2024 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Annual Summit. Azerbaijan’s favourable tilt towards Turkey, which has long been a known India baiter, is only because of its tacit support during the Nagorno-Karabakh war. Azerbaijan is critical to Turkey’s pan-Turkic and pan-Islamic ambitions in and around the region.

Pakistan, too, has been a key ally of Turkey and also plays a pivotal role in its pan-Islamic ambitions. For Azerbaijan, Pakistan is a friend in need, and Pakistan’s enemy (India) is an enemy. The unholy nexus between Turkey, Pakistan and Azerbaijan, and their hatred and animosity towards India, has been reverberating from the South Caucasus to South Asia in the past few years. Turkey and Azerbaijan swear by the brotherhood, friendship, and strategic alliance between the two, according to the principle of “One nation, two states”.

Many analysts and strategists observing the developments in the South Caucasus presume that the growing India-Armenia bonhomie in recent years could be the reason behind Azerbaijan’s support of Pakistan. Azerbaijan’s hostility towards India stems from New Delhi’s firm support for Yerevan during the Nagorno-Karabakh war (2020) and the recent growth in diplomatic and political partnership and, most importantly, defence cooperation. It is important to note that Armenia is the number one importer of Make in India defence products and equipment and a vital cog in India’s burgeoning defence exports (nearly 2.5 billion USD) under the Government of India’s Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme. India struck a defence deal worth $1.5 billion with Armenia just a week after Baku expressed solidarity with Pakistan for its recent attacks against India. In addition, Baku could not accept the developments following the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

Similarly, the trade and economic partnership between Azerbaijan and Pakistan may be one-fifth of India-Azerbaijan bilateral trade. Still, their political, diplomatic, and ideological bonding is several times greater than the New Delhi-Baku relationship. But that does not provide Azerbaijan with any right to interfere in India’s internal affairs by joining Pakistan in its anti-India endeavours. No nation-state can tolerate any foreign country’s bid to encroach upon her sovereignty. The Indian government has sent a strong signal to Azerbaijan to understand and acknowledge the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir as an integral and inalienable part of India.

As a responsible member of the world community, Baku should not support Pakistan’s cross-border terrorist activity in Jammu and Kashmir, which has led to a considerable loss of innocent lives and public property. The Pahalgam attack is a grim reminder of how terrorism has become a canker that has eaten the very vitality of our society. Since India has never intervened in Azerbaijan’s internal affairs, the Azeri leadership should respect India’s sovereignty and refrain from anti-India activity.

Mahesh Ranjan Debata teaches at the Center for Inner Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.