The United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan have signed a commerce deal, as Azerbaijan’s chief met along with his Armenian counterpart in Abu Dhabi on Thursday for peace talks aimed toward ending the decades-long battle between their two nations.
The so-called Complete Financial Partnership Settlement (CEPA) was signed within the Emirati capital by UAE Minister of Overseas Commerce Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi and Azerbaijani Minister of Financial system Mikayil Jabbarov.
The commerce deal is anticipated to contribute round $680 million to the UAE’s gross home product by 2031, Zeyoudi stated in a press release relayed by way of the Emirates Information Company (WAM) late Wednesday.
He added that Azerbaijan is “a massively priceless commerce and funding accomplice” for the UAE, citing the nation’s strategic location and strong financial progress. He stated the Emirates plans to extend investments within the South Caucasus nation throughout sectors, significantly in vitality, by way of state-owned firms Abu Dhabi Nationwide Oil Firm and renewables-focused Masdar.
The CEPA will allow the 2 nations to develop a joint logistics infrastructure to permit them to enter broader markets inside the area, the WAM assertion revealed.
Why it issues: Bilateral commerce between the UAE and Azerbaijan grew by 36.2% in 2024 to succeed in $2.24 billion, which represents 50% of Azerbaijan’s commerce with the GCC, Zeyoudi stated.
The UAE is the main Arab investor in Azerbaijan, with investments exceeding $1 billion, in keeping with WAM.
The UAE has been on a CEPA blitz, concluding 27 of the offers with nations together with Cambodia, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Turkey, Serbia, the Republic of Congo and Ukraine, in a bid to diversify its financial system away from oil. Specifically, it needs to extend non-oil overseas commerce to $1.1 trillion by 2031. In 2024, the Gulf state’s non-oil commerce reached a document excessive of round $817 billion.
Know extra: In the meantime, the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia held peace talks within the UAE on Thursday after almost 4 many years of battle. The assembly between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev got here after the 2 nations finalized a draft of a peace deal in March that was mediated by Russia.
The ultimate statements launched by every nation’s Overseas Ministry didn’t point out any progress within the newest peace talks however stated the 2 leaders “agreed to proceed bilateral negotiations and confidence-building measures between the 2 nations.”
Because the late Nineteen Eighties, the 2 South Caucasus nations have fought a number of wars over Nagorno-Karabakh — a area in Azerbaijan that, by the early Nineteen Nineties, had successfully damaged away with backing from Yerevan.
Azerbaijan recaptured the breakaway area in September 2023, resulting in an exodus of all of Nagorno-Karabakh’s 100,000 Armenians, who fled to Armenia. Peace talks started shortly after to deal with the disaster, which has seen greater than 7,000 individuals killed, in keeping with conflict monitor estimates.