Azerbaijan, Iran to resume direct flights
By Sabina Mammadli
Baku and Tehran will resume direct flights in early March this year, Azerbaijani ambassador to Iran Ali Alizada has said on his official Twitter page.
In this regard, Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov signed an order amending the resolution on "Measures to extend the special quarantine regime and remove several restrictions" on February 15.
"This is the next positive step in relations between the countries," Alizada said.
Citizens, stateless people, and people from other countries living in Albania, the Dominican Republic, Philippines, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Colombia, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Peru, and Tajikistan are now permitted to enter and exit Azerbaijan by air, according to the order.
It should be noted that the year 2022 will mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Iran.
After a period of aggravated tensions and a series of regrettable episodes that should have been avoided, Azerbaijani-Iranian relations entered a new age of rapprochement in late 2021.
Iran was one of the 10 signatories of the final declaration of the 15th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) which, amongst many other clauses, incorporated a congratulatory part dedicated to Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020 war and the restoration of its territorial integrity. On top of that, a new gas swap deal was signed by Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Iran, which is perceived as another indication that the recent political rupture has been left behind.
On November 28, 2021, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan signed a trilateral agreement on swapping gas supplies in Ashgabat. The signing ceremony took place in the presence of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi.
The agreement envisages deliveries of 1.5 to 2 billion cubic meters of gas each year, with Turkmenistan supplying gas to Iran and Iran delivering an equal quantity of gas to Azerbaijan. Thus, under the trilateral deal, Turkmenistan will sell 5-6 million cubic meters of gas per day to Azerbaijan. These volumes are expected to increase in the future.
After liberating its lands from Armenian occupation in the 44-day war in 2020, Azerbaijan regained control over a 132-km section of the Azerbaijan-Iran border. The re-establishment of control over the state border opened up new prospects for deeper cooperation between the two countries.
The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Iran in 2021 was $440.8 million.
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