Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said Russian and German officials held secret talks in Baku on Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine earlier in July, adding that Azerbaijan was not informed of the meetings at the time and only learned about them in subsequent reporting from the Times.
Speaking in a joint press conference in Berlin on Tuesday alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Aliyev said he had requested information from the Azerbaijan border service, who ‘confirmed’ the meeting.
‘On July 12, two well-known figures — Mr [Ronald] Pofalla, the head of [former German Chancellor Angela] Merkel’s Administration, and Mr [Matthias] Platzeck — arrived in Baku on the Berlin–Baku flight and returned on 14 July. At the same time, on 12 July, former Russian Prime Minister Mr [Viktor] Zubkov and Mr [Valery] Fadeyev, the head of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of Russia, arrived in Baku from Moscow’, Aliyev said.
‘We were not informed about this by either Germany or Russia. In other words, our territory was simply used without our knowledge’, he added.
It is not the first time that secret meetings between Pofalla and Platzeck and Russian officials have been held in Azerbaijan.
In 2025, revelations that secret talks were held in Baku including the same individuals, along with German MP Ralf Stegnert, provoked outrage in Germany. Zubkov and other members of the Russian delegation have been sanctioned and are considered to be close with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Despite being apparently blindsided by the latest meeting, Aliyev said, ‘If this meeting leads to the end of the Russia–Ukraine war, then of course we welcome it’.
The news comes as Azerbaijan’s relations with Russia have fully normalised — according to Aliyev — after almost a year of heightened tensions that followed the deadly Azerbaijan Airlines crash in 2024. The crash, which happened after Russian anti-air missiles mistakenly targeted the plane, killed 38 people.
The spat notwithstanding, Aliyev and other Azerbaijani officials have been keen to present Baku as a largely neutral country in the geopolitical confrontation between Russia and the West, although Aliyev has repeatedly said he supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
In his comments on Tuesday, Aliyev said, ‘Our goal is for the war to stop and for peace to be established in the region’.