Summary

The Azerbaijan foreign ministry has announced its intention to apply to the BRICS bloc. The surprise announcement comes after a visit by Russia President Vladimir Putin earlier this month, and an earlier visit by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev to Moscow in April.

BRICS membership is an obvious choice for Baku, which continues to benefit from the geopolitics of the post-Ukraine war global arena. Joining BRICS represents a natural extension of the country’s multi-vector foreign policy, which seeks to engage with both the East and West. It would also help to shore up relations with Russia without giving up anything significant regarding Azerbaijan’s ongoing peace negotiations with Armenia. And while the appetite on the other side for more BRICS expansion remains unknown, with the bloc already welcoming in new members Iran, Egypt, South Africa, and the UAE at its most recent summit in January, Azerbaijan can be expected to make a strong case for membership whenever the next round takes place.

 

Impact

Why would Azerbaijan join the BRICS?

For Baku, joining the BRICS would be a natural extension of a foreign policy that seeks to place it at the center of East-West relations. And most importantly: it would do so without giving up anything significant, as joining the bloc doesn’t require any ideological, military, or economic commitment on the part of the applying state.