Azerbaijan–EU Relations: Trade, Energy and the Next Phase of Economic Cooperation

When Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council, arrived in Azerbaijan’s capital on March 11, his visit carried the symbolism of a partnership that has steadily grown more important to both sides — and more complicated.

At a committee meeting in Baku on Monday, lawmakers agreed to advance a bill ratifying the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs, paving the way for a parliamentary vote on February 20. The decision, technical at first glance, offers a revealing insight into the shifting — and increasingly pragmatic — relationship between Azerbaijan and the Council of Europe.

When Ilham Aliyev stepped onto the tarmac in Belgrade in mid-February, greeted by Aleksandar Vučić with full military honours, the picture looked familiar. What mattered was not the ceremony but the subtext: Serbia and Azerbaijan are building something more durable than diplomatic symbolism — an energy-centred partnership that could subtly alter the economic map of the Balkans.

The chandeliers of the Bayerischer Hof glowed against a February chill as more than 450 presidents, prime ministers, generals and executives gathered for three days that felt less like a conference than a reckoning. The 62nd Munich Security Conference, held from Feb. 13 to 15 across the Bayerischer Hof and the Rosewood Munich, unfolded amid a sense that the post–Cold War order — the one Europe thought it had secured — is slipping into history.