On November 6, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, stated during a meeting with a NATO delegation that the country’s Armed Forces are undergoing a broad modernisation and transitioning to Alliance standards. The press service of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration released the information.
According to him, military reform is taking place in close cooperation with the Turkish armed forces, and he separately emphasised the importance of expanding bilateral dialogue between Baku and NATO.
Aliyev also noted that Azerbaijan has achieved the main goal since gaining independence – reclaiming its historic lands. He stressed that the process of military modernization will continue in the future.
In early October, the country’s leader proposed that member countries of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) conduct joint military exercises in 2026. The OTS includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkey, which is a member of NATO.
It is worth noting that in August 2025, Azerbaijan and Armenia, with the mediation of U.S. President Donald Trump, signed an agreement to halt hostilities.
This set of steps signals Baku’s strategic course: strengthening defensive capabilities through modernization, expanding partnership with NATO, and close cooperation with regional neighbors within multilateral security formats; such approaches help to foster stability in the region.
Modernizing the army to NATO standards and deepening cooperation with Turkey remain essential as part of Azerbaijan’s security strategy.
Expanding interstate formats involving the Organisation of Turkic States by 2026 will open up new opportunities for joint training exercises and the exchange of experiences.
Support for peaceful initiatives and agreements between Azerbaijan and Armenia, mediated by other countries, will also influence the ongoing regional stability.
Azerbaijan bans Russian oil tankers from using the Baku port.
Following US sanctions, the Russian company Lukoil is facing problems in Azerbaijan. Starting in November, the company will stop supplying oil to Baku.
Lukoil used the port of Baku to ship oil from two fields on the Caspian Sea shelf, writes the “Bukva” publication with reference to Reuters.
Starting in November, Lukoil will stop supplying oil to Baku and redirect it to Makhachkala. From there, the raw material will be pumped through a pipeline to Novorossiysk, from where it will be exported abroad by tankers.
According to the agency, in November, the company will deliver approximately 30,000 tons of oil to Makhachkala, and from December, it will redirect the entire volume that previously went through Baku, approximately 130,000 tons.
Thus, starting in 2022, the state company SOCAR’s oil refinery began to purchase part of the produced oil, following Lukoil’s loss of access to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which foreign companies own. Some of the raw materials are also shipped through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium.
Lukoil’s overseas “oil empire” includes refineries in Bulgaria, Romania, and the Netherlands, a network of gas stations across the EU, as well as production facilities in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Egypt, the UAE, Latin America, and Africa.
The Russian company announced the sale of its foreign assets to Norway’s Gunvor, but as a result it may lose up to 15-17% of its total hydrocarbon production. According to analysts, Lukoil produces 6.5% of its oil and almost half of its gas outside Russia, while foreign refineries provide a quarter of its total oil processing. The loss of these assets, analysts warn, could significantly hit the company’s financial performance.
As a reminder, on October 22, the US imposed sanctions against the most prominent Russian oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. The sanctions also affect about 50 of their subsidiaries.
As previously reported by USM, the sanctions imposed against the Russian oil giants could deprive Russia of up to $5.5 billion in monthly revenues. Although the US sanctions will not take effect until November 20, their impact is already noticeable. Contracts for the supply of Russian oil have begun to lose demand – in a week, the volume of contracts fell by 20%, and Chinese buyers “sharply lost interest.”
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