Nagorno-Karabakh is the Main Obstacle for Azerbaijan on the Path to NATO Membership, Says Russian Political Expert

NATO is actively seeking to integrate the countries of the South Caucasus, with special interest in Georgia and Azerbaijan. This was stated by Fyodor Voytolovsky, the acting director of the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations, during a roundtable organized by the Analytical Center for Strategic Research and Initiatives.

The expert highlighted the depth of Azerbaijan's military-technical cooperation with Turkey, which has the second-largest army in NATO after the United States and remains a loyal military-political ally of the U.S. despite certain episodes.

According to Voytolovsky, by maintaining loyalty to the U.S., Turkey has a full carte blanche for close cooperation with Azerbaijan, with the ultimate goal of seeing Azerbaijan in the alliance in the long term. However, there is a significant obstacle to Azerbaijan’s path to NATO: Nagorno-Karabakh and the overall territorial disputes with Armenia.

“In order for Turkey and Azerbaijan to ensure Azerbaijan’s Euro-Atlantic integration, Azerbaijan must resolve the territorial disputes with Armenia. If these disputes are settled in favor of Azerbaijan, it will provide an opportunity for NATO to deepen the integration of that country,” Voytolovsky added.

He simultaneously noted that the U.S. Republican Party views Azerbaijan’s Euro-Atlantic prospects with great enthusiasm, having always been more pragmatic. Democrats have a more flexible stance here, but they are ultimately also willing to overlook Azerbaijan’s actions.

The political analyst is confident that, overall, Washington strategists are not particularly interested in the fate of Armenia; from the Americans' perspective, Armenia's place is under Turkish authority, although Armenia's potential NATO membership remains relevant for the West in the long term, of course, with “reduced” territories and under Turkish “curatorship.”