Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan Aim to Double Trade Volume to $1 Billion

During an official visit to Baku on April 8, 2026, Kazakh Foreign Minister Yermek Kosherbayev held talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov. The ministers focused on elevating bilateral relations across multiple sectors.

"Thanks to the political will of the heads of state, Kazakh-Azerbaijani relations have been elevated to a qualitatively new level of interaction over the past three years," emphasized Kosherbayev.

The discussions covered a wide range of cooperation areas, including political, trade-economic, energy, transit-transportation, and cultural-humanitarian ties. A central point was the development of trade and economic collaboration. The ministers noted that mutual trade volume has grown fivefold over the past five years, reaching $470.7 million in 2025.

The parties agreed to work towards doubling this figure, setting a target of $1 billion in bilateral trade. This goal is expected to be achieved through mutual investments and industrial cooperation.

Key infrastructure projects were also reviewed. These include the practical implementation of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route and the project to lay a fiber-optic communication line and a deep-sea power cable along the Caspian Sea bed.

Cooperation in transiting Kazakh energy resources to world markets via Azerbaijan was given special attention, along with collaboration in agriculture, industrial cooperation, and telecommunications. The growing role of the Kazakh-Azerbaijani Direct Investment Fund was highlighted in this context.

The ministers expressed satisfaction with the development of cultural and humanitarian links. They noted the highly successful reciprocal Culture Days held in both countries and praised the activation of cooperation in education, including ongoing Higher Education Days of Kazakhstan in Azerbaijan.

A positive dynamic was also observed in tourism, with approximately 30 weekly flights connecting cities of the two countries.

During the meeting, the ministers also aligned their positions on current regional and global agendas. They reaffirmed their commitment to further close cooperation within multilateral frameworks such as the UN, OTS (Organization of Turkic States), CICA (Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia), CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation), and the Caspian Summit.