Russian-Azerbaijani Bilateral Trade Cooperation in Terms of Eurasian Integration

The paper aims to determine the place and the role of bilateral trade flows of goods and services in foreign economic relations between Russia and Azerbaijan in the 2020s. The research objective is to analyze the dynamics and structure of bilateral trade in goods and services and identify trade obstacles and strategically important and promising trade cooperation areas in terms of Eurasian integration processes. The trade structure between Russia and Azerbaijan is beneficial: trade flows are diversified, there is no dependence on trade in primary goods, and the commodity structure contains important industrial goods. Trade dynamics are positive. Nevertheless, export potential exceeds real values. Despite the general historical development, absence of trade barriers, and cultural proximity, according to the authors, there are also pessimistic factors, including insufficient institutional efficiency and a low level of awareness of export opportunities among foreign trade enterprises. The promising trade cooperation areas include logistics projects that accompany the goods’ flows and boost trade in commercial services. Despite a considerable amount of literature devoted to post-Soviet trade relations, there is little attention to Russian-Azerbaijani cooperation. The paper contains a deep analysis of bilateral trade in HS6-digit goods and services structure, using trade concentration and trade potential indexes. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.