Israel and Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday in the field of artificial intelligence, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.

The non-binding formal agreement, which comes as the Jewish state and the predominantly Shi’ite Caucasus nation “intend to deepen their ongoing alliance through artificial intelligence,” was inked by the head of Israel’s National Artificial Intelligence Directorate, Gen. (res.) Erez Eskel and Azerbaijani Digital Development and Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev, in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem.

“AI is not the instrument of the future, it is the instrument of the present,” Netanyahu said at the event.  “We have to make sure that we are among the leading countries in this field, and I think we can do a lot more, and a lot better, together.”

Calling Azerbaijan “our trusted ally,” the premier added, “this is another step up the ladder of forming this close relationship between us.”

The partnership will focus on supercomputing infrastructure, the application of AI in critical civilian sectors, human capital and joint research, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Azerbaijan has proven its friendship with Israel, especially over the past two challenging years,” Roman Gurevich, honorary ambassador of the Jewish Agency in Azerbaijan, told JNS on Wednesday. “This agreement in one of the most important fields in the modern world will make it possible to elevate the strategic partnership between the two countries to new heights.”

The tech cooperation with Azerbaijan comes just two weeks after Israel became the first country to launch a strategic partnership on artificial intelligence with the United States.

Ties with Azerbaijan, which shares a 428-mile border with Iran, are of strategic importance to Israel, as both a conduit for reconnaissance and due to its light crude oil, which accounts for nearly half of Israel’s oil imports.

At the same time, Azerbaijan is a leading purchaser of Israeli military hardware, which helped Baku in the Second Karabakh War with its former archrival Armenia in 2020. The victory greatly strengthened the Baku region in a time of geopolitical change.

Three years ago, Azerbaijan made history by becoming the first Shi’ite Muslim country to open an embassy in Israel, defying threats from Iran and putting its longstanding friendship with Israel out in the open.

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