Strategic dialogue between Baku and Washington - how it goes in economy

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, together with the State Department and the U.S. Department of Commerce, is organizing a business mission to Azerbaijan. The mission will last two days (February 9-10) and will allow American companies to establish direct contacts with representatives of Azerbaijani government agencies, state-owned companies and leading private sector players. This is the first American mission of this format in the history of bilateral relations.

The program of the mission includes meetings with representatives of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan and the Cabinet of Ministers, relevant ministries, SOCAR, Gosneftefond, AZPROMO, PASHA Holding, the American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan (AmCham), as well as other government agencies and key private sector players in the fields of energy, defense, agriculture, digital development, transport, healthcare., finance and investments.

On August 8, 2025, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Washington on the establishment of a Strategic Working Group (Task Force) to prepare a Charter for Strategic Partnership between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the United States of America. The document notes that the Task Force will focus on three areas. The first is regional ties, including energy, trade, and transit. The second is economic investments, including artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure. The third is security cooperation, including the sale of defense products and the fight against terrorism. The parties identified the expansion of investments in the energy sector, cooperation in the field of defense and counterterrorism, trade and economic cooperation, partnership in the field of AI, etc. as areas of cooperation.

Answering questions from business representatives at the "Breakfast with the Leadership of Azerbaijan" event at the Davos Forum, President Ilham Aliyev said that after the historic document on the establishment of the Strategic Working Group on the development of the Charter was signed in Washington, cooperation with American companies has become more intense than ever before. And we have almost completed work on the document, that is, on the strategic charter. The Head of State noted that the Charter of Strategic Partnership could be ready in February. "Since August 8, we have sent four delegations to Washington and other cities. They all returned with good results. Therefore, we believe that entering a new stage of relations with the United States in the political, economic, energy and even defense spheres will create great opportunities for Azerbaijan to attract direct investment from the United States. And, I hope, our European partners will also not stand aside," President Ilham Aliyev said.

Work on the Charter began last November, when U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Alison Hooker visited Baku. The official herself wrote about this on the social network X, pointing out that her first visit to Baku was productive and marked the beginning of work on the Charter of Strategic Partnership between the United States and Azerbaijan. Hooker held meetings with Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev, after which she wrote on Twitter: "It was an honor for us to lay the foundation for the Charter of Strategic Partnership between the United States and Azerbaijan."

The first meeting of the Working Group was held in December. The Task Force was headed by Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sonata Coulter. The sides exchanged views on various aspects of bilateral cooperation and discussed the text of the Charter of the strategic partnership.

The second meeting of the Task Force was held on January 21. The parties continued to discuss the text of the future Charter and other issues in an online format.

Earlier in January, Elnur Mammadov held talks with Karl Kress, Regional Director of the United States Agency for Trade and Development (USTDA) for the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Eurasia. According to the Foreign Ministry, the sides exchanged views on the possibilities of familiarizing representatives of the US private sector with the infrastructural and logistical capabilities of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan has quite wide opportunities both in energy and logistics. These opportunities are already being actively implemented and play an indispensable role in connectivity and energy security within our region and in the Eurasian space. Azerbaijan has built the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan export oil pipeline, laid the strategic Southern Gas Corridor, connected Asia and Europe with the BTK railway corridor, and now has achieved the implementation of an important branch of the Middle Corridor - the road through the Armenian Meghri with the participation of the American side. The participation of the United States significantly increases the prospect of the project and is a guarantor of its implementation. The Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) opens up new opportunities not only for transport exchange, but also for energy ties, as it also provides for energy communications. In particular, electricity flows between Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkiye, Central Asia and Europe will be provided. The day before, commenting on the advantages of the TRIPP project in Parliament, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced the connection of the energy systems of Armenia and Azerbaijan within the framework of the project in the future.

The volume of mutual trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the United States in 2025 amounted to $ 1.557 billion.

As Economy Minister Mikhail Jabbarov noted earlier, Azerbaijan retains its investment attractiveness for American companies. The head of the department noted that 300 commercial organizations with American investments in agriculture, industry, transport, construction and trade are registered in our country. Of these, 220 are active.

It should be noted that according to statistics, the share of investments from the United States in the total volume of foreign direct investment in Azerbaijan increased in 2025. In the first half of last year, it was 2.8 percent. In January-September 2025, the volume of direct investments from the United States to Azerbaijan amounted to $133.240 million.

In turn, Azerbaijan invested $77.621 million in the U.S. economy during the same period, which is 3.9 times more than in the same period of 2024. The share of investments in the United States in the total volume of foreign direct investment in Azerbaijan amounted to 5.8 percent. Thus, the United States ranked 4th among the countries in which Azerbaijan invests the most.

As for the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the United States, it showed growth until October last year, reaching about 1.059 billion dollars in 10 months, and then the growth stopped, and by the end of the year this figure stopped at around 1.36 billion dollars.

Delays and time lapses can occur in any process. In general, they do not affect the bilateral agenda. Cooperation between Azerbaijan and the United States has recently demonstrated serious dynamics, covering both traditional energy issues and new technological and infrastructural spheres, strengthening economic ties between the two countries.

So the first American business mission in the history of bilateral relations will have something to do in Azerbaijan.