Media: COP32 brings Azerbaijan, Ethiopia closer in strategic push

Preparations for COP32 are emerging as a catalyst for rapidly deepening relations between Azerbaijan and Ethiopia, with climate cooperation providing a platform for a broader strategic partnership linking the Caucasus and Africa.

The assessment was made in an article by the Ethiopian Institute of Foreign Affairs titled “Shared-Mandate Diplomacy: How the Baku-to-Addis climate handover is anchoring a new African-Caucasus partnership,” Caliber.Az reports.

The authors noted that Ethiopia’s selection in November 2025 to host COP32 in Addis Ababa in 2027 was initially viewed primarily as a diplomatic achievement for the country and the African continent, which has sought a stronger voice in global climate governance.

However, the article argues that the significance of COP32 extends well beyond the climate agenda. The summit has already helped accelerate the development of ties between Ethiopia and Azerbaijan, which hosted COP29 in Baku in 2024.

The authors describe this process as “diplomacy of shared mandates” — a concept in which countries that successively receive similar international responsibilities, such as hosting the COP presidency, transform technical cooperation into a sustained channel for broader bilateral relations.

The handover of the climate-hosting role from Baku to Addis Ababa has already opened avenues for cooperation in areas beyond climate policy.

“The COP32 memorandum of understanding, signed on February 27, 2026,2 functions less as a stand-alone technical arrangement than as the organizing instrument of a broader strategic engagement — one already visible in parallel agreements on defense, investment, agriculture, media and anti-corruption cooperation,” the article says.

The COP32 memorandum did not arrive on its own. It was signed the same day as agreements on defense cooperation, agriculture, investment promotion, media cooperation and anti-corruption — a signing pattern that treats the climate mandate as one line item inside a coordinated package, not as its own diplomatic event,” it adds.

The Ethiopian institute also highlighted Azerbaijan’s experience in organizing COP29 as an important resource for Ethiopia as it prepares to host the next summit.

This experience includes conference logistics, delegation management, negotiations on climate finance, the organization of side events and coordination mechanisms designed to turn a global climate summit into a broader diplomatic platform.

“A technically successful summit would strengthen Ethiopia's claim to be more than a venue for African diplomacy. It would reinforce Addis Ababa's position as a place where African priorities can be aggregated and projected into global negotiations. The Azerbaijan partnership can support that objective if the cooperation moves beyond ceremonial exchanges and is used to extract practical lessons from COP29,” the article notes.

By Vafa Guliyeva