Masoud Pezeshkian, President of Iran, arrived in Baku on an official visit where he was formally welcomed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the Zagulba Palace. Following the welcoming ceremony, bilateral talks between the two presidents and their accompanying delegations began immediately.
Iranian state television broadcast parts of Pezeshkian’s remarks during the meeting, where he referred to Iran as a “friend of Azerbaijan” and conveyed the greetings of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to President Aliyev. This visit marks the first trip by an Iranian president to Azerbaijan in nearly six years. Pezeshkian’s agenda includes meetings with senior Azerbaijani officials, the signing of cooperation agreements, participation in a bilateral business forum, meetings with Iranian expatriates, and discussions with Iranian traders and border governors.
Before departing Tehran, Pezeshkian emphasized the depth of Iran-Azerbaijan ties, stating, “Our relationship with Azerbaijan is rooted in historical, cultural, and social connections that must be further strengthened.” Relations between Iran and Azerbaijan have been fragile in recent years, particularly due to Azerbaijan’s close ties with Israel — a key source of tension between the two neighbors.
According to Mehdi Sanaei, the Iranian president’s political advisor, the visit to Baku was scheduled as a “compressed one-day trip” because Pezeshkian remains closely involved in overseeing the aftermath of the Shahid Rajaee Port explosion. Sanaei described the trip as “a new beginning” in bilateral relations, a sentiment echoed by Iran’s state news agency IRNA, which called the visit part of the ongoing process to restore ties.
Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei stated that preparations for this visit had been underway for a long time, despite recent tensions. Pezeshkian’s visit comes just weeks before the anniversary of the death of former President Ebrahim Raisi, who perished in a helicopter crash in May 2024 after attending a joint ceremony with President Aliyev on the Iran-Azerbaijan border. Earlier reports had suggested that Pezeshkian might attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference hosted by Baku in November 2024, but ultimately Iran was represented by Shina Ansari, head of the Department of Environment.
During the visit, economic cooperation remained a central focus. Iran and Azerbaijan have previously collaborated in the energy sector, and recently, Iran announced a new agreement with Russia to import natural gas via Azerbaijan. Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad stated last week in Moscow that an existing memorandum for the annual import of 55 billion cubic meters of Russian gas had been expanded to allow land transit through Azerbaijan. Paknejad added that the gas would be delivered to Iran at Astara, and logistical coordination with both Russia and Azerbaijan is underway.
Beyond energy, geography and border dynamics also loom large in Tehran-Baku relations. Azerbaijan reclaimed territories from Armenia during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, reigniting disputes over regional connectivity. Specifically, Azerbaijan seeks a direct land corridor to its exclave, Nakhchivan, which borders Turkey and Iran but is separated from mainland Azerbaijan by a strip of Armenian territory.
Before the Soviet Union’s collapse, Azerbaijan maintained a railway connection to Nakhchivan through the Zangezur corridor. However, that route was severed during the first Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 1988. Since then, Azerbaijan has relied on Iran and Turkey for access to Nakhchivan.
Tehran opposes any new corridor that would cut off its border with Armenia, viewing such a move as a threat to regional balance and to its own strategic interests. Historically, Iran was among the first countries to recognize Azerbaijan’s independence from the Soviet Union. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was the first Iranian president to visit Azerbaijan in 1993. Mohammad Khatami visited in 2004, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made two trips — an official visit in 2007 and participation in the Caspian Sea Summit in 2010 — and Hassan Rouhani visited twice, once in 2016 and again in 2019.
Pezeshkian’s trip thus continues a tradition of high-level contacts, but it occurs against a backdrop of both opportunity and tension, with energy cooperation, geopolitical balancing, and regional security at the forefront of the evolving Iran-Azerbaijan relationship.