Azerbaijan-Israel cooperation rarely flaunted
Israeli experts’ opinions for Caliber.Az

INTERVIEWS  08 September 2023 - 18:00

Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev has recently visited Israel. The meetings between Hajiyev and numerous Israeli politicians led by Prime Minister Netanyahu are a significant event for both countries. Apparently, Azerbaijan and Israel are reaching a qualitatively new level of cooperation.

What do Israeli experts and political analysts think?

While commenting on a high-level Azerbaijani delegation’s visit to Tel Aviv for Caliber.Az, political strategist, and head of the “Asia. Big Game" project on the ITON TV channel David Eidelman said that Hajiyev’s meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ronen Levi, head of the National Security Council Tzachi Hanegbi and other Israeli political figures are "important, but working".

“Azerbaijan is almost constantly in touch with Israel, and mutual contacts are always uninterrupted. Each meeting is important because it helps to create a strong sphere of strategic interests and cooperation between our countries. As is known, a big parliamentary delegation from Israel, led by Evgeny Sova, as well as Tatiana Mazarsky, Osher Shekalim and others, is also in Baku which once again emphasises that contacts and work between our countries are synchronous,” Eidelman said.

“Israel and Azerbaijan cooperate in various spheres beginning with energy supplies from Azerbaijan and ending with the supply of agricultural technologies from Israel. It is possible to list everything for a long time. For example, the most purchased tea in the store near my house is Azerbaijani tea. It is in great demand and surpasses numerous kinds of tea from other countries. This is a clear example. Our cooperation in the development of smart cities, land reclamation, and high technologies, and, of course, in the military sphere is also significant,” he said.

“This is the friendship of two peoples, which was chosen by Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev as a strategic course in the 1990s, when Israel could not provide Baku with the Iron Dome, drones, or other types of high-tech weapons, which it now supplies to various countries, primarily, to Azerbaijan. This was a strategic and principled choice, which, I think, fully justified for both Israel and Azerbaijan,” he noted.

Israeli military expert and author of the military-analytical channel Sergei Auslander also expressed his opinion.
Auslander noted that Hajiyev’s visit to Israel is military-political, but military cooperation between Baku and Tel Aviv is rarely flaunted.

“Azerbaijan is a strategic partner of Israel, especially in the military sphere, but any agreements, if they were concluded, remain, as a rule, secret,” he added.

Israeli journalist and publicist, head of the international relations commission of the Israeli Union of Journalists Rostislav Goltsman also voiced his point of view.

He emphasised that the meetings held by Hajiyev show Israel’s attitude towards Azerbaijan.

“The fact that Hajiyev was received by the Israeli prime minister shows that the conversation was extremely important. Of course, we do not have an opportunity to say what exactly was discussed at the meeting, but the “mirror principle” can help. That is, how those who do not like these contacts reacted to this. Immediately after these meetings, as if working according to the same manual, the Russian, French, and some other European media outlets suddenly screamed that Israel fully provides Azerbaijan with weapons. Doesn’t Israel understand that it is supplying weapons to a country that will definitely use them? Just pay attention, among those countries are those who supplied weapons to Armenia, primarily, the French, who are sending their instructors to prepare a new Armenian revenge in the South Caucasus, simultaneously declaring about peacekeeping mission,” Goltsman said.

“Therefore, seeing the reaction of the sides dissatisfied with the cooperation between Azerbaijan and Israel, we can say that this is a good sign. It means that our cooperation is growing and strengthening, developing very quickly and actively, and the results of Hajiyev’s meetings in Israel are very productive,” Goltsman added.

Caliber.Az