Once bound by history to Iran and Russia, Azerbaijan has been actively reconfiguring relationships with its neighbours in a bid to stake a claim as a major player in Eurasia – even at the cost of ratcheting up diplomatic friction with its former colonial rulers.
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Emboldened by the decisive seizure of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia in 2023, Baku has drawn on a web of diverse strategic partnerships to assert its autonomy.
No longer content to be a subordinate neighbour, Azerbaijan is pushing back against Moscow and Tehran, drawing strength from a disparate coalition that includes Israel, Turkey, nuclear-armed Pakistan and strategic partner China, as well as a host of former Soviet republics with majority ethnic Turkic populations.
The shifting allegiances have prompted comparisons with the 19th-century “Great Game” between the British and Russian empires, but analysts see today’s contest as even more intricate.
The current geopolitical contest in the southern Caucasus “involves a more complex and multipolar configuration, with multiple stakeholders”, said Rusif Huseynov, director of the Baku-based Topchubashov Centre think tank. Alongside Russia and China, the United States, European Union, India and Pakistan all now jostle for influence.
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