Aliyev praises ties with China ahead of visit to Beijing

In an interview with Chinese state media, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev praised trade and investment ties between his country and China as well as Azerbaijan’s role in the Belt and Road initiative. The interview was published a day before his expected visit to Beijing.

Aliyev’s interview with Xinhua, China’s official news agency, was published on Monday.

Xinhua had asked Aliyev about ‘important results’ that have been achieved in developing Azerbaijan–China ties following his signing of a strategic partnership agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a summit in Astana in July 2024.

The agreement touched on trade volume between the two countries, Chinese investments, and academic and cultural presences in Azerbaijan.

‘One Belt, One Road’: Azerbaijan courts Chinese investors as Xi meets Aliyev

Azerbaijan appears to be looking east in a bid to attract Chinese investment to its economy, despite concerns raised by experts about ‘dependency’ on China’s production and economy. On Monday, Azerbaijan hosted the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Baku. The SCO is an international trade and security organisation established by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan in 1996, to which Azerbaijan has been a dialogue partner since 2015. Azerbaijan and China’s pre

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Aliyev said that the agreement was a ‘great achievement and also a great responsibility’, adding that Xi had invited him to formally visit China — an invitation he would oblige almost a year later, on 22 April 2025.

Xinhua cited Azerbaijan’s State Statistics Committee as saying that China accounted for 7.9% of Azerbaijan’s total foreign trade, making it Azerbaijan’s fourth largest trading partner. The news outlet also asked Aliyev whether he believed the Belt and Road initiative contributed to promoting increased cooperation between the two countries.

The Chinese-led global initiative aims at developing transport infrastructure — among other projects — in order to facilitate more Chinese trade globally.

Aliyev said that it was ‘safe to say that Azerbaijan is the second country after China to have invested the most’ in the initiative, both in Azerbaijan and abroad.

He additionally highlighted that Azerbaijan was expanding its cooperation with China in the Belt and Road initiative, claiming that his country ‘continues to extensively develop international transport corridors, create modern infrastructure, and invest additional funds in increasing their capacity in response to the sharp increase in cargo traffic through our territory’.

‘Over the past 20 years, 21,000 kilometres of highways have been built and renovated, 335 bridges and overpasses, 45 tunnels, 163 overland and underground crossings have been built in Azerbaijan’, Aliyev told Xinhua. ‘Considerable progress has also been made in improving railway infrastructure including the construction of over 1,500 kilometres of new railways and the renovation of 1,800 kilometres of existing tracks.’

Aliyev claimed that the volume of trade between Azerbaijan and China increased by 20.7% in 2024, totalling around $3.7 billion.

However, he added that there was still a ‘huge untapped potential’ in economic and trade cooperation with China.

Aliyev also said that Azerbaijani trading and wine houses operated in several major Chinese cities, naming Beijing, Shanghai, Urumqi, Qingdao, Chengdu, Nanjing, and Zhangjiajie.

‘They are making a significant contribution to the development of our bilateral trade relations. Azerbaijan’s trading house has also been created on the well-known international online trading platform “JD” in China’, he said.

He also said that a total of 375 companies ‘with Chinese capital’ were registered in Azerbaijan, ‘of which 298 operated quite actively’. He added that negotiations were underway on potential cooperation in the ‘non-oil sector, in particular, in attracting direct investment in hi-tech and innovation, alternative, and renewable energy’.

A ‘Zangezur corridor’ with Chinese capital

While Aliyev touched on connectivity projects Azerbaijan was undertaking, he did not discuss proposals concerning the ‘Zangezur corridor’ — a Baku demand for control of a strip of land through Armenia to link mainland Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan.

In early April, Aliyev was visited by Liu Jianchao, the Minister of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Aliyev’s visit to China was announced following the meeting.

Azerbaijan media says Chinese companies will work to construct ‘Zangezur Corridor’

Pro-government media also reported that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev would visit China later sometime in April.

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At the time, Azerbaijani pro-government media reported that Chinese companies would participate in the structure of the ‘Zangezur corridor’. The reports came after Russian state-run media outlet Sputnik reported that Liu had emphasised the ‘great importance’ of the construction of the corridor, ‘since its implementation will further strengthen the connection between Europe and Asia’.

Several hours after pro-government media published news reporting on Liu’s statements, the articles were deleted. Sputnik’s article was also scrubbed of any references to or quotes about the controversial proposed corridor.

On the same day, China’s Charge d’Affaires to Armenia, Chen Ming, refuted the reports, with Ming telling Armenian state media outlet Armenpress that ‘China supports Armenia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity’, and that Chinese officials ‘didn’t even touch upon’ that subject at the conference, while calling such media reports attributed to the Chinese officials ‘fake or inaccurate’.

China’s Ambassador to Armenia refutes reports about Chinese construction of ‘Zangezur corridor’

Many of the original media reports of the potential Chinese plans have since been scrubbed.

OC MediaAytan Farhadova