An interview with H.E. Mr. Gursel Ismayilzada, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Japan ...

Japan’s engagement with the countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus, including Azerbaijan, is based on a politics-free diplomacy, a reality that has led some—both in Japan and in the CASC region—to conclude that Tokyo has not succeeded in living up to the expectations of the CASC states.  On closer examination, however, it is clear that there are many internal and external factors, as well as geopolitical hindrances, that have contributed to Japan’s relatively shallow presence in the region. Two major factors—the geographical situation in which Japan finds itself ...

Since 1992, Azerbaijan’s trade with China has increased by a factor of 600 times to more than a billion US dollars a year, according to Beijing’s ambassador in Baku, a development that reflects a more general rise in trade between Azerbaijan and the countries of Asia and one that is likely to have geopolitical consequences as well. Speaking at the Presidential Center for Strategic Research in Baku on June 13, Ambassador Hong Tsyuinem noted that, “if in 1992, trade between the two countries amounted to 1.5 million dollars, in 2011, it reached 1.086 billion dollars, 16.5 percent more...