Azerbaijan Expanding Naval Cooperation with NATO and Turkey

Paul Goble

    Staunton, May 13 – At the end of February, Azerbaijan became a member of MARSEC, the NATO Center for Naval Security, that is based in Turkey and will represented there by officers from its own navy initially for three years (casp-geo.ru/azerbajdzhan-stal-chlenom-tsentra-nato-po-morskoj-bezopasnosti/ and mod.gov.az/ru/news/azerbajdzhan-prinyat-v-chleny-centra-sovershenstvovaniya-morskoj-bezopasnosti-54060.html).

    Alongside these ties, Azerbaijan and Turkey have expanded their navy-to-navy contacts, most recently with the visit of Turkish naval officers to Baku this past week in which the sides discussed expanded cooperation (casp-geo.ru/azerbajdzhan-posetila-delegatsiya-vms-turetskoj-respubliki/).

    Turkey on its own has long been involved in the development of the Azerbaijani navy and its ships and personnel on the Caspian. Azerbaijan’s involvement in a NATO structure at the same time is sparking concerns among some Russian analysts about what this activity, which has generally passed below the radar screens of most, may mean.

    Azerbaijan’s navy on the Caspian has been growing and increasingly represents a potential challenge to Russia’s Caspian Flotilla as well as Iran’s navy (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/02/azerbaijani-navy-prepares-to-defend.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/03/birth-of-azerbaijani-navy-and-revival.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/07/azerbaijani-naval-exercises-highlight.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/05/kazakhstan-increasingly-preparing-its.html).