External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will visit Azerbaijan on Friday for talks with his counterpart, marking the first bilateral visit to Baku by an Indian External Affairs Minister in eight years.The last such visit was made by the late Sushma Swaraj in April 2018.The October 23 visit follows the first-ever meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek last month, signalling renewed high-level engagement between New Delhi and Baku.During the visit, Jaishankar will meet his Azerbaijani counterpart to review bilateral ties and discuss ways to strengthen cooperation, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.India and Azerbaijan established diplomatic relations in February 1992, with energy, trade, tourism and cultural exchanges forming key pillars of their relationship. However, differences over regional and security issues have also posed challenges to bilateral ties.Bilateral trade stood at $401 million in 2025, with Indian exports accounting for $226 million and imports from Azerbaijan totalling $175 million, largely comprising crude oil, according to official Indian data.Energy remains a major component of India’s economic engagement with Azerbaijan. ONGC Videsh Ltd has invested more than $1.2 billion in stakes in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil and gas fields and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, reflecting Azerbaijan’s importance to India’s overseas energy interests.People-to-people links are another important aspect of the relationship. Azerbaijan received nearly 1.67 lakh Indian tourists in 2025, making India its fourth-largest source of inbound visitors. Baku has direct air links with Delhi and Mumbai, although IndiGo has suspended its Delhi-Baku services.The two countries also share longstanding cultural connections. The Ateshgah fire temple near Baku contains inscriptions in Devanagari and Gurmukhi, reflecting the historical presence of Indian merchants in the region. Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi is known in India, while the friendship between Azerbaijani singer Rashid Behbudov and actor Raj Kapoor remains a cultural link between the two countries.Jaishankar’s visit follows the sixth round of India-Azerbaijan Foreign Office Consultations, held in Baku in April, during which the two sides discussed cooperation in trade, technology, tourism, pharmaceuticals, energy and culture.The visit is expected to build on these discussions and provide fresh momentum to bilateral engagement following the Modi-Aliyev meeting.