Baku (Azerbaijan), April 3 (ANI): Minister (West) Sibi George calls on Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov on the sidelines of the 6th round of India-Azerbaijan Foreign Ministries consultations in Baku on Friday. (@MEEAIndia X/ANI Photo) | Photo credit: ANI
After a year of tension between India and Azerbaijan over Operation Sindoor, the governments decided to restore ties as senior officials met in Baku for the 6th round of Foreign Office consultations. The talks held on Friday between MEA Secretary (West) Sibi George and Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov are the first such talks since 2022 and after deep disagreements over relations between Azerbaijan and Pakistan and India and Armenia.
In a statement, the MEA said the two sides had “comprehensively reviewed” the state of bilateral relations. “The topics discussed included trade, technology, tourism, pharmaceuticals, energy, culture, people-to-people exchanges and the fight against cross-border terrorism,” he added.
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Azerbaijan recently resumed oil exports to India, which account for 98% of Azerbaijan’s exports to India, while ONGC Videsh maintains a stake in the country’s oil and gas fields and energy pipelines.
The reference to cross-border terrorism in the statement is significant because last year Delhi was angered by Azerbaijan’s protest against Indian strikes on Pakistani sites during Operation Sindoor following the Pahalgam terror attacks and suggests that the two countries have since ironed out some of their differences. In a statement on May 7 last year, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry “condemned the military attacks against the Islamic Republic of Pakistan that killed and injured several civilians” and called on all parties to “restrain and resolve the conflict through diplomatic means.” Azerbaijan and Pakistan have a close strategic partnership, particularly with regard to Islamabad’s support for Azerbaijan against Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, while the Azerbaijani government has accused New Delhi of arming Armenia in the conflict.
In September, during a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also accused India of blocking Azerbaijan’s entry into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Fraternal relations
“India has tried to retaliate against Azerbaijan in international organizations, but it has emphasized that it has no meaning for Azerbaijan, as brotherly relations take priority,” his office said in a statement on September 1, 2025.
However, the two sides have improved relations in the recent past, notably after meetings between India’s newly appointed ambassador to Baku, Abhay Kumar, and government officials, and after Azerbaijan helped more than 200 Indians fleeing US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
“We have our ambassador there, he presented his credentials recently. During the presentation of his credentials, he also discussed several issues of a bilateral nature,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a briefing, sidestepping a question on the tension surrounding Operation Sindoor.
“We are grateful to the Government of Azerbaijan for the support they have provided for the departure of Indian citizens from Iran through the land border,” an official spokesperson said. In June 2025, Indians fleeing US-Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were specifically told not to approach Iran’s land borders with Turkey or Azerbaijan due to a rift with them over support for Pakistan, and to travel only through Armenia and Turkmenistan.
The sources said that during Friday’s talks, the two sides agreed to “resolve differences through open dialogue and discussion.” Mr George also called on President Aliyev’s foreign policy adviser and Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov of the Republic of Azerbaijan, where they “reviewed bilateral ties and exchanged views on regional and global issues of common interest” and agreed to hold another round of talks in Delhi, according to an MEA statement.
Published – 03 Apr 2026 22:28 IST
