Baku and Beijing adopted a joint declaration On Establishing Strategic Partnership between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the People’s Republic of China at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Astana.
The document states that Beijing hails Azerbaijan’s ambition to strengthen cooperation in the SCO and supports the legal status of Azerbaijan in the SCO. “Azerbaijan expresses its desire to join the BRICS, and China welcomes Azerbaijan’s participation in BRICS cooperation,” the declaration said.
“The Parties consider each other as priority and reliable partners, and independently determine the policy of bilateral relations, regardless of external factors,” the declaration said.
According to the document, Baku supports the One China principle and considers Taiwan an integral part of the territory of China.
China, for its part, supports the peace agenda proposed by Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus and “considers counterproductive geopolitical intrigues aimed at maintaining confrontation.”
“The Parties emphasize that terrorism, separatism, and extremism pose serious threats to the entire international community and require joining efforts to prevent and combat these challenges,” the declaration said.
Azerbaijan and China have “immense potential for developing cooperation in the field of industrialization and investment,” the document said.
“The Parties will make full use of the working mechanism of cooperation on industrialization and investment between Azerbaijan and China […], facilitate the activities of companies of Azerbaijan and China, actively promote cooperation in priority areas such as energy, including oil and gas production and refining, green energy and transport infrastructure, information and telecommunications, digital economy, non-ferrous metals, building materials, and others,” the document said.
“The Parties aim to consistently develop the potential of transit and transport interaction with use of intelligent transport systems technologies, as well as to ensure the technical and economic conditions for the continuous and full-scale operation of international transport routes,” the document said.
“China expresses its readiness to actively participate in the construction and use of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor (“Middle Corridor”), work more closely with Azerbaijan and other countries along the route to jointly facilitate the uninterrupted operation and accelerated development of the southern corridor for China-Europe freight trains and in the opposite direction,” the document said.
