Expanding flight service between two countries is often a bellwether of increasing bilateral connectivity. On June 16, Azerbaijan Airlines operated the first direct flight between Baku, Azerbaijan, and Shymkent, Kazakhstan. Direct flights between Baku and two cities in western Kazakhstan, Aktobe and Atyrau, are expected to launch in the near future.

As the largest economies of their respective regions and the best positioned to facilitate trans-Caspian trade, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have seen an unprecedented increase in bilateral activity. Total trade turnover surpassed $500 million in 2022; four years later, the two countries pledged to reach one billion.

Source: The Observatory of Economic Complexity

The catalyst for the burgeoning Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan relationship, including growing trade, is the Middle Corridor, which promotes intraregional trade and joint-ventures. The most visible evolution of the two countries’ partnership is in the energy sector: since 2022, Azerbaijan SOCAR (State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic) and KazMunayGaz of Kazakhstan have greatly expanded operations for the transport of Kazakhstan’s oil across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan since the project’s inception. Four years later, four million tons of Kazakh oil, originating from the Tengiz and Kashagan fields, have transited the Caspian Sea and gone on to global markets via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.

But in the digital age, true connectivity demands a cloud-based component. The first fiber-optic cable, 380 km long and with a capacity of up to 400 terabits per second, was successfully shipped from Azerbaijan to Kuryk Port in Kazakhstan on June 15, 2026. The cable will support not only current but also future advances in cross-border AI and digital infrastructure; it is expected to be completed during the third quarter of this year. 

Both countries’ intent to deepen bilateral ties was confirmed during the April 2026 meeting of the Organization of Turkic States, when Kazakhstan announced plans to sign an intergovernmental agreement with Azerbaijan about the Middle Corridor. The agreement formally recognizes both governments’ commitment to deepen collaboration on the Corridor’s development.

That intergovernmental agreement has accompanied a slew of other public and private ones. In October 2025, the Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan Direct Investment Fund, held jointly between Kazakhstan’s Samruk-Kazyna JSC and Azerbaijan Investment Holding, signed an agreement with Azerbaijan’s SOCAR on future cooperation in energy projects. Earlier that year, the two countries jointly invested in an iron plant in eastern Azerbaijan and the Baku Grain Terminal began storing Kazakh wheat.

The rapid expansion of Kazakhstani-Azerbaijani relations will be on the table later this year, during a scheduled official visit to Baku by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The upcoming visit reflects the rising trend in direct communication between the two heads of state: President Ilham Aliyev has visited Kazakhstan eight times in the last five years, while Tokayev has visited Baku six times in the same time period.