Business Council as a New Level of Economic Dialogue Between Baku and Berlin

The Joint Declaration on the establishment and activities of the Azerbaijan-Germany Business Council, signed today during the visit of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to Germany, represents an institutional response to a specific demand to bring the economic cooperation between the two countries into a more systematic, practice-oriented, and long-term format, commensurate with the level of their strategic partnership.

This is stated in an article published by the Report news agency.

Until now, the trade and economic ties between Azerbaijan and Germany, despite their intensity, have largely developed in a wavelike manner around visits, forums, and individual deals. The Declaration lays the institutional foundation for further deepening of trade, economic, and investment cooperation between the two countries, meaning it creates a permanent structure where previously there existed a set of disparate contacts.

This fundamentally changes the logic of interaction. The question ceases to be "when will the next meeting take place" and becomes "which structure is handling this on a permanent basis." This is precisely what distinguishes the Business Council from previous formats of cooperation.

A direct channel between government and business

The key function of the Business Council is to provide a permanent platform for direct dialogue between government structures and business communities of Azerbaijan and Germany. This means that issues requiring prompt resolution — from regulatory barriers to the coordination of specific projects — can be addressed through regular working procedures rather than waiting for the next high-level visit.

Interest in such a channel is also confirmed by the practice of recent days: on July 20, a meeting was held in Berlin between the President of Azerbaijan and the Chairman of the Eastern Committee of the German Economy, Michael Harms. His organization represents the interests of German companies operating in the markets of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. At the meeting, the parties directly noted the growing interest of Azerbaijani and German entrepreneurs in joint work and discussed ways to institutionalize these activities. They discussed energy — both traditional and alternative — connectivity through the Middle Corridor, transport and logistics, the application of German technologies in Azerbaijan's agriculture, and the utilization of the country's tourism potential. In essence, this agenda constitutes precisely the list of issues of mutual interest for the prompt resolution of which the Business Council is being established. That is, the mechanism responds to a demand already articulated by business, rather than being created in isolation from it.

President Ilham Aliyev stated in Berlin that German companies are actively operating in Azerbaijan. According to him, more than 200 companies with German capital are currently operating in Azerbaijan. The President also expressed confidence that the negotiations in Berlin and the agreements reached would lead to an