Azerbaijan expanding presence across Africa, deputy FM says

Azerbaijan is steadily expanding its presence across African countries as cooperation with the continent deepens through high-level political engagement and support on international platforms, Deputy Foreign Minister Yalchin Rafiyev said on May 25.

Speaking to journalists, Rafiyev said Azerbaijan and African states had conducted more than 30 high-level reciprocal visits over the past three years, Caliber.Az reports via local media.

“In recent years, cooperation between Azerbaijan, the African Union and individual countries of the region has developed particularly dynamically,” he said.

According to the deputy foreign minister, many African leaders had visited Azerbaijan on official bilateral trips as well as within multilateral frameworks.

Rafiyev said Africa had remained an important partner for Azerbaijan, recalling that several African countries had supported Baku during the period when Azerbaijani territories were under occupation.

He added that African states continued to back Azerbaijan’s initiatives, candidacies and broader agenda on global politics, climate issues and urban development in the post-conflict period.

“Azerbaijan is systematically expanding its presence in African countries,” Rafiyev said, adding that significant progress in this direction was expected in the coming years.