BAKU (Dispatches) – Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met Monday with his Azerbaijani counterpart in a rare visit to Baku, which saw the two neighbors sign seven cooperation documents. 
“Iran will make efforts to ensure that its relations with Azerbaijan are strategic across all spheres,” Pezeshkian said at a joint press conference.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Pezeshkian’s visit “is a reflection of the high level of relations between the two countries”.
“Our peoples have lived for centuries in an atmosphere of friendship and brotherhood. Today, our interstate relations are developing on this solid foundation,” he added.
Last week, Pezeshkian expressed hopes for a “rapid and serious improvement” in relations and cooperation between the two countries as part of a broader effort to “mend ties”.
“The two countries can resolve all issues jointly, through negotiations... and strengthen relations, with mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity,” he said on Monday. “We must not allow others to set us against one another.”
In a recent sign of rapprochement, Iran and Azerbaijan held two days of joint naval exercises in the Caspian Sea in November.
 Pezeshkian, who headed a 120-strong delegation to Baku, characterized the agreements signed between Iran and Azerbaijan as strategic and important.
“My dear brother Ilham Aliyev has instructed Azerbaijan’s respected officials and ministers to implement the joint strategic program. We have also tasked our foreign minister to follow up on this strategic plan more intensively so that we can enhance cooperation in all fields, including scientific, political, economic, and security. 
“We are determined to fully implement all agreements with the Republic of Azerbaijan, and God willing, we will create a new framework for a better future for Iran, Azerbaijan, and the Middle East region,” he said.
Pezeshkian said Iran and Azerbaijan can work together to establish peace and security in the region and resolve challenges through mutual cooperation.
Aliyev said the primary goal for both sides is to enhance mutual activities and deepen ties across all sectors.”
“Several crucial documents were signed today. Their endorsement at the presidential level demonstrates our shared commitment to advancing comprehensive cooperation in all fields,” he added. 
After the Soviet Union’s collapse, Iran recognized Azerbaijan’s independence in 1991, and was among the first countries to establish diplomatic relations and open its embassy in Baku.
Diplomatic relations have run hot and cold for years, but they have always enjoyed a rich foundation of historical and cultural commonalities. In addition to geographical proximity, Iran and Azerbaijan have deep kinship affinities, which transcend official relations between governments.
Pezhakian’s visit to Baku took place at a time when the specter of a thirty-year war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Karabakh region has been lifted, and the two neighbors have agreed the text of a peace agreement to end nearly four decades of conflict.
The South Caucasus has been gaining strategic importance on the global arena and benefiting from shifting geopolitical dynamics in the region. The war in Ukraine has boosted the region’s strategic value, particularly with the expanding corridors linking Asia and Europe.
These corridors offer the shortest overland connection between Europe and China, Eurasia’s two largest economies, as an alternative to the traditional route.
In October 2023, Tehran and Baku agreed to establish a transit route called the Aras Corridor, which allows Azerbaijan to access its Nakhchivan exclave through Iranian territory.
Bypassing Armenia, the Aras Corridor presents an alternative to the Zangezur Corridor with the potential of reducing Iran’s concerns for its common border with Armenia.
The corridor also aligns with the

 International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), enhancing regional connectivity and trade routes between Iran and Russia.
Azerbaijan serves as a major transit route in the sprawling INSTC, a network of roads, railways, and shipping routes, linking the Baltic Sea to the Persian Gulf and connecting Azerbaijan, Russia, India, Iran, and other countries.
The Rasht-Astara railway is the crucial and only missing component of the INSTC along the western coast of the Caspian Sea. In January, Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in the Kremlin to sign a trilateral agreement and start building the railroad by the end of March 2025.
The project featured on Pezeshkian’s itinerary in Baku, along with removing customs barriers to increase trade, expanding tourism exchanges, exploiting a joint oil field in the Caspian Sea, and Iran’s participation in the reconstruction of Azerbaijani territories liberated in the Karabakh war with Armenia.