Azerbaijan applies to join BRICS, alongside India, Russia and China

Interestingly, this development comes a day after President Putin's visit to the oil rich South Caucasus country where Putin ensured that the regional ties with Azerbaijan is secured.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev attend a state reception at the Gulustan Palace in Baku, Azerbaijan, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP)

In a turn of events after a meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijan on Tuesday formally applied to join the BRICS bloc of developing economies.

BRICS, acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has included five nations for over a decade but now the interests in the group is rising as Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates joined in January and Saudi Arabia has said that it is also considering on joining the bloc.

Interestingly, this development comes a day after President Putin’s visit to the oil rich South Caucasus country where Putin ensured that the regional ties with the nation is secured and Moscow’s trade routes via Azerbaijan are intact during troubled times.

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The BRICS bloc already includes countries which are a great reservoir of oil alongside over a quarter of world GDP is included in the nations which are a part of the BRICS bloc.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced that $ 120 million has been earmarked for the boosting of cargo transport with Russia, when he met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and the business ties remained at the pinnacle of several agenda.

The Associated Press quoted political scientist Zardusht Alizade who said that Russia has to maintain ties with countries like Azerbaijan as it needs to access the global market through them due to various trade sanctions being put up by the West against Moscow over its action against Ukraine in a regional war.

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For the Azerbaijan, it is important to maintain a peaceful relation with Russia in order for its national security over tensions with neighbouring Armenia, added Alizade.

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BRICS is increasingly becoming a bloc which is setting a narrative of a new global world order which is multipolar in nature and that supremacy of anyone country over its resources won’t be suffice to maintain relations in current times where war and coup has affected several nations internally.

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