Caucasus
Coverage across the South Caucasus — Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
The Black Sea drone war reaches Baku through the crew of a Turkish salvage tug
Two Azerbaijani sailors died on Wednesday when drones hit the tug Tedy twice off Odesa during a salvage operation for an Istanbul company, on a passage the Turkish trade press reports as bound for Constanța. On Thursday Russia's defence ministry reported a strike on “a tug escorting” two cargo ships bound for Odesa, Baku named its dead and told its citizens to keep away from war zones, and Ankara, which proposed a shipping-security mechanism 8 days ago, had added nothing to it by evening. The cost of the middle position in this war has moved from hulls to crews.
Baku moves the start of work on the Trump route to 2027, 6 days before Armenia's court takes up the deal
Physical work on the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, the road and rail link across Armenia's south between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan agreed in Washington in August 2025, will begin in 2027 instead of before the end of this year, Azerbaijan's foreign minister Jeyhun Bayramov told journalists on Wednesday, “according to the latest information”. Ilham Aliyev had put the start at the end of this year or the start of next; Nikol Pashinyan had wanted it in 2026. Armenia's Constitutional Court examines the agreement on 15 September.
Brent clears $100 for the first time since July, with Azeri Light at $108 against the $65 in Baku's budget
Azeri Light printed $108.18 a barrel CIF Augusta in Trend's Wednesday-morning table, 66% above the $65 average written into Azerbaijan's 2026 budget. By 10:25 Moscow time the November Brent contract had passed $100 for the first time since 24 July, Interfax reported. Kazakhstan's budget law runs on $60, and its tenge lost 2.5 tenge against the dollar on the same day.
Georgia promises to double its ports by 2032 for a corridor whose shallowest link is on the other sea
Georgia's sea ports and terminals handled 13.7 million tonnes in the first 8 months of 2026, 24% more than a year earlier and the best figure in ten years, the economy minister told the Georgia International Maritime Forum in Batumi. The prime minister, at the same opening, set a ten-year target: railway capacity doubled, port capacity doubled, airport capacity tripled, about $7 billion by 2032. The desk's own reading of the route puts its narrowest section across Azerbaijan and the Caspian, at a Kazakh quay whose fenders are broken and whose water is falling, and there the only dated commitment is a dredging contract.
OPEC+'s seven hold October at September's level while Brent opens the week at $97
Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman decided on Sunday to keep their October required production at the September level, with Kazakhstan's line at 1.628 million barrels a day. Brent's November contract traded at $97.28 at 08:15 Moscow time on Monday, up $1 on the day, and the tenge closed at 454.31 to the dollar, 2.04 stronger than on Friday.
Baku's fuel for Armenia passes 21,000 tonnes as Saturday's 16 wagons leave Balajary
On Saturday 16 tank wagons carrying 977 tonnes of diesel left Balajary station for Boyuk Kasik, the Georgian border, and Armenia beyond it, APA reported. With them the running total of Azerbaijani fuel sent to Armenia stands at about 16,000 tonnes of diesel and about 5,000 tonnes of AI-92 and AI-95 petrol, by the agency's count. The same border crossing took Russian cargo in transit the same day: 355 tonnes of wheat, 180 tonnes of fertiliser and 138 tonnes of timber.
Azeri Light clears $97, half again the oil price written into Baku's budget
Azerbaijan's export blend was priced at $97.61 a barrel on Wednesday morning, up $4.72 or 5.08% on the day, APA reported; the 2026 state budget was drawn at $65.
Baku's fuel for Armenia nears 20,000 tonnes, and every wagon still goes through Georgia
Another 17 tank wagons of Azerbaijani diesel leave Baku's Bilajari yard for the Georgian border today. The running total the Baku press prints, near 15,000 tonnes of diesel and 5,000 of petrol, is small against Armenia's import book and large as a fact: the peace dividend is counted in wagons, and its only track runs through a third country.
Aliyev and Pashinyan pace out the Trump route in Bishkek
Azerbaijan's president and Armenia's prime minister met on the margins of the SCO summit on 31 August and discussed what both readouts call further practical steps on the TRIPP corridor. For one afternoon the normalisation track between Baku and Yerevan ran through Kyrgyzstan.
Baku protests images displayed at its Moscow compound
Azerbaijan's foreign ministry condemned "provocative images against our country" displayed by unknown persons outside its embassy's guest house in Moscow around midday Thursday, and asked Russia for a legal assessment of the act.
The ADB puts $400 million behind the region's border queues
The Asian Development Bank approved on Thursday a $400 million regional facility, BUILD, to modernise border crossings across the 11 CAREC countries, with up to $50 million per project over 10 years. The priority projects named so far are Tajik: Fotehobod-Oybek on the Uzbek border, Sarazm and Navbunyod.
Baku's media complaint goes on the record: 96 outlets
The number that reached the wires this week began as an interview. Azerbaijan's ambassador to Russia counted the Russian outlets running theses about his country at 96 or more, and asked Moscow for a political assessment and concrete measures. The count had circulated for days as a stray figure; now it has an author on the record.
Baku and Tashkent agree to count each other's pension years
The pension agreement signed at Sunday's Tashkent summit lets citizens who worked in both countries stack their service years for eligibility, with each state paying the share earned on its territory. The terms were published on Monday; ratification is still ahead.
Azerbaijan takes a seat at Central Asia's table
Ilham Aliyev and Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a Treaty on Eternal Friendship in Tashkent on Sunday and chaired the third session of their Supreme Interstate Council. The document that travels furthest is procedural: Azerbaijan's full participation in the Consultative Meetings of Central Asian heads of state, a format that now runs across the Caspian.
Azerbaijan builds 97% of a power line, and the missing 44 kilometres are Armenian
AzerEnergy says the 330 kV line from Jabrayil to Aghband is 97% complete: 74 km of double circuit, 1,000 MW of capacity, pointed at the border of Syunik. The full chain is meant to run from Jabrayil to Turkey, and every link is built, building or planned on Azerbaijani and Turkish ground except the 44 km that cross Armenia. Baku is building the corridor's hardware first and negotiating its legal existence second.
Baku's wanted list reaches into a Moscow ministry
Aleksey Chadayev, an adviser to Russia's transport minister, announced his resignation late Tuesday after Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General's Office charged him and 2 media figures over summer livestreams and put them on a wanted list. Russia's foreign ministry, for its part, has stepped back from the commentators: their views, it says, in no way reflect Moscow's position.
The Middle Corridor is one row in Washington's tariff table
Caucasus and Central Asia holds 4 names together: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, filed under Belt-and-Road Overland Nodes. That label does more work than any of the coverage that trickled into regional media this week.
Baku hands Moscow’s envoy a list of 3 broadcasts
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry summoned Russian ambassador Mikhail Yevdokimov on Tuesday and lodged what it called a firm protest over “provocative, insulting and threatening statements” about Azerbaijan’s state, people and leadership in Russian media.
Washington's transshipment map reaches the region, and Tbilisi demands facts
A White House report on Chinese tariff evasion places Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in one category of small transit economies, and on Tuesday Georgia's prime minister answered it: show a fact.