On Thursday local time, Azerbaijan announced that its state oil company SOCAR has shipped 1,220 metric tons of gasoline to Armenia. This marks the first fuel shipment between the two countries in thirty years, indicating a new development in their relations.

According to the Azerbaijani government, the gasoline was transported by rail from the capital Baku to Boyuk-Kesik near the Georgian border, and then shipped to Armenia via Georgia. Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan and Head of Foreign Policy, noted that this cargo delivery was based on an agreement reached during last month's talks between the two countries' deputy prime ministers, aimed at expanding economic cooperation. He stated, "The delivery of this shipment is based on the agreement reached during last month's talks between the deputy prime ministers of the two South Caucasus countries, aimed at expanding economic cooperation." The two sides also discussed issues such as border delimitation during the talks.

The international community widely recognizes the Nagorno-Karabakh region as part of Azerbaijan's territory. In the 1990s, the region broke away from Azerbaijani control, with local ethnic Armenians establishing de facto administrative bodies. Since then, long-standing disagreements have persisted between the two sides. After 2023, the situation in the region changed, and the two sides initiated a peace dialogue process.

Earlier this year, Azerbaijan reopened a cargo transit route to Armenia, which had been closed since 1997. Since October, two batches of grain from Kazakhstan and Russia have been shipped to Armenia via Azerbaijan. It is expected that another batch of Russian grain will be transported via this route before the end of the year. This gasoline shipment represents a concrete step in energy cooperation between the two sides.