For Israel’s leadership, ties with Azerbaijan are strategic relations that will be invested in - Jerusalem Post

By Trend

For Israel’s leadership, ties with Azerbaijan are strategic relations that will be invested in,Trend reports citing the article in The Jerusalem Post.

The article written by Israeli defense journalist Seth J. Frantzman noted that Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz traveled to Azerbaijan at an important time for Israel’s ties to Baku as the trip has important regional implications.

According to Israel’s Defense Ministry, the trip involved a focus on security and policy issues and was aimed at fostering defense cooperation between the countries. The delegation illustrates how much importance Israel puts on this trip.

During the trip, Gantz discussed changes in the Middle East region following the signing of the Abraham Accords. He also talked about Israel’s reconciliation with Turkiye. These are very important moves that have taken place, the report said.

“Azerbaijan-Israel relations are not new and Baku has been a key partner in Israel’s strategy. A recent article by Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center argued that “Israel has made Azerbaijan its primary source of energy…As one of the main importers of Azerbaijani oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, Israel receives over half of its petroleum demands from the Caspian country.”,” the article said.

There are also many other aspects to these ties, including the fact that Azerbaijan is located in an important place. It is near Iran and Turkiye. Israel-Turkiye ties were reduced greatly over the last decade, but Azerbaijan ties remained strong.

“This illustrated that they weathered many other changes. Clearly, Israel-Azerbaijan relations are only growing strong. This does have important contexts on other fronts. For Israel, this isn’t some strategic game, Israel has immediate needs. It wants friends in the region and it wants to grow relations with countries like the UAE, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Egypt and Morocco...,” the report said.

Thus, the author noted, given all the current realities Israel not only wants the ties with Baku to flourish but to cement them publicly and that is why Gantz’s trip matters so much.