Azerbaijan's foreign policy: friendship - gladly! harm neighbours - no! A response to Eric Levin's article

On December 18, Eric R. Levin, a founding member of the New York law firm “Eiseman, Levine Lehrhaupt & Kakoyiannis P.C.”, published an article on American-Azerbaijani and Azerbaijani-Israeli relations. Levin is a publicist, political commentator, and fundraiser for Republican Senate candidates. The article is both capturing and highly controversial, where the author, analyzing the prospects of Azerbaijan-US relations, in fact, expresses an opinion that Azerbaijan could become an effective tool of the US secret services in the South Caucasus and Central Asia, after America left the region.

According to Eric R. Levin, Washington should seriously engage in “establishing a strategic partnership” with Azerbaijan, since Baku could serve US interests well. As the author noted, Azerbaijan can agree to such a format of cooperation with the USA due to the nature of Baku’s strategic partnership with Israel and difficult relations with Iran and Russia. And all these countries are important for the “national security” of the USA. Azerbaijan could also help America in controlling the terrorist groups “ISIS-K” and “Al-Qaeda” and monitor the processes taking place in Afghanistan.

In conclusion, the article stated that it was high time “to start sending presidential and congressional delegations to Azerbaijan to talk about our common interests and establishing a strategic partnership”

The article by the American expert is interesting and even flattering to some extent, as the author has practically painted the significance of the geopolitical role of Azerbaijan. However, he did not take into account one key thing: the vision and understanding of the formula of the foreign policy of Azerbaijan itself. In this way, Eric R. Levin sees Azerbaijan as a platform for the realization of US interests rather than as a sovereign state with its own foreign policy course and interests. And whoever is behind this publication, even if there are some geopolitical forces, there is a lot of confusion. Its message is also very strange, as it resembles an operational guideline of the US foreign intelligence services mistakenly posted online. It’s all too open and unceremonious.

As it becomes clear from the article, the author, although acting as an analyst, is completely unfamiliar with the basic political principles of our country, taking Azerbaijan as a country ready to be helpful and at any time work for some “big owner”. It is obvious, that it mixed us up with our neighbouring “country of stones”, which is, in fact, always ready to serve a new patron.

In reality, very little of Azerbaijan’s foreign policy matches the authors' illusions. Baku pursues an independent policy in the region, with “independent” being the key word, maintaining friendly and partnership relations with many states, but not serving anyone’s interests and not going to, even if Washington was interested. Yes, we are a small country, but we do not engage in intrigues, do not betray and do not frame others because we remember and appreciate the known wisdom that all good things come back around. There is an example of this to look at: Armenia, which, as a result of such policies, has found itself left empty-handed and in the worst state of isolation and poverty.

“Everyone already knows, including in the European region, that Azerbaijan is pursuing an independent foreign policy and openly declares this. Our words have never stood at odds with our deeds”. These words of President Ilham Aliyev should also be taken into account by the author of the publication. Among other things, I would like to voice my surprise that Levin seems to be unaware that Azerbaijan is against participation in military and political blocs and leads the “Non-Aligned Movement” governmental forum.

We have excellent, friendly, partnership relations with Israel, but that does not mean that they are directed against third countries, including Iran. Azerbaijan has expressed its views on this issue more than once. Baku has difficult relations with Iran, but this does not mean that it intends to provide its territory for the surveillance of Tehran. Of course, Baku is not a naive child, and if it sees danger at its borders, it will do everything to level it out with various methods that can be used for this. However, we are not working for the benefit of third parties that are trying to undermine the balance in the region.

In this sense, Azerbaijan has been taught a lot by everyday experiences - Baku’s diplomacy has been formed over several decades in the context of extremely complex and contradictory relations in the arena of world politics, and its successes speak for themselves.

“Azerbaijan will not be anyone’s weapon, not even of such a superpower as the USA and there will be no acting in the interests of the US against its neighbours and at the expense of its own security, no matter what promises of supplies of military equipment are made. When it comes to a strategic partnership with Washington though, in order to strengthen its own security and the security in the region, Azerbaijan is not only ready but has been implementing such a partnership for a long time”, Rasim Musabeyov, a political scientist and member of Azerbaijan’s parliament told Caliber.Az.

“Look, despite the fact that Armenian lobbyists in the US Congress rip their shirts and demand the restoration of Section 907 [of the Freedom Support Act], discriminatory against Azerbaijan, they fail because the Pentagon, intelligence services say that military aid to Azerbaijan is in the national interest of the country. And we are supplied with the most necessary equipment, which allows us to exercise proper control over our borders, air and maritime spaces”, the political scientist said.

This is in the interest of Azerbaijan as well as in the states that provide us with this technical assistance.

“Also, Azerbaijan cooperates very closely with Israel in the field of security - there is an exchange of intelligence between the countries regarding terrorist organizations that pose a danger to both Israel and Azerbaijan, and we appreciate that cooperation.

This is not news, in this sense, and in a broader context, Azerbaijan is a member of the anti-terrorist coalition, which the USA itself created at the time and our cooperation is actively promoted there. But if the United States makes proposals that are not detrimental to Azerbaijan’s security and do not pose a direct threat to our neighbours, such cooperation may be deepened and, in this sense, I think that the article written by the American author should even be considered even as a positive input” Musabeyov summarized.