On 6 September, Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said that its servicemen would not participate in the “Caucasus-2020” military drills to be held in the Southwest of Russia. The ministry emphasized that it will send two servicemen as observers to the exercises. Besides Azerbaijan, India also declined to participate at the exercises, quoting the Covid-19 pandemic as the reason.

Although Azerbaijan did not give any official reasons to decline its participation at the exercises, it can be pointed out that some unresolved issues still persist between Baku and Moscow. This was recently confirmed by the country’s Presidential Aide Hikmet Hajiyev, who speaking at a Turkish broadcaster stated that Russia continues delivering weapons to Armenia, which already reached 500 tons of arms equipment, and that Baku still did not receive any trustworthy explanation regarding the purpose of those deliveries.  

The exercise is aimed at assessing the ability of the armed forces to ensure military security in Russia’s southwest, where according to Russia’s Defence Ministry serious terrorist threats persist and preparing for the strategic command-staff drills. 16 countries are expected to participate at the exercises, including China, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey apart from other Central Asian Republics which are part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The exercises would involve 4,800 drills of various scope and more than 9,000 scheduled practical combat training exercises.

Parallel to Azerbaijan declining to participate in the drills, it was also reported that the country’s defence and security budget will amount to $2.33 billion in 2021, compared to $2.27 billion in 2020. According to amendments to the law on 2020’s state budget, the overall expenditures of the state budget in 2021 are forecasted to amount to $15.2 billion. This means that next year, the share of defence and security expenditures will amount to 15.3% of the overall budget expenditures by sections of the functional classification.

According to the draft law, ensuring the defence capability and security of the country, the creation of financial support for special defence projects and activities will be continued in 2021.