Azerbaijan and Israel are strategic allies. I had the privilege of laying the foundations for that alliance in 1993, shortly after Azerbaijan obtained independence for the second time. The first time was in 1918, when the short-lived Azerbaijan Democratic Republic became the first secular Muslim republic in history.

At the beginning of April, fierce fighting erupted between the Armenian and Azerbaijani armies in the contested territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. A tenuous cease-fire has since been declared. As in any region entangled in a complex web of international interests, the international community is expected to play a major role in the short- and long-term future of this strip of land. Now, however, when Azerbaijan needs all the diplomatic help it can muster, Israel is not rushing to its aid.

The alliance between the two countries has a firm basis in geopolitical realpolitik. Azerbaijan takes special care to maintain its status as a secular state, while its two large neighbors, Turkey and Iran, are best characterized as Islamist regimes with imperial ambitions. Iran especially has a hard time coming to terms with the fact that a country on its border, particularly one with a majority Shiite population, maintains a modern Western, secular lifestyle. Azerbaijan also takes care to uphold a cautious policy of neutrality toward the two regional powerbrokers, Turkey and Russia, even while Ankara and Moscow are engaged in a heated diplomatic, near military, conflict.

The significant Azeri minority in the northeastern corner of Iran is discriminated against in many different areas by the central government in Tehran. In contrast, there was never anti-Semitism in Azerbaijan, and many Jews there have reached prominent positions in the sciences, culture and society. The community of Azeri immigrants now living in Israel and the Jewish community that remains in Azerbaijan play an important role in preserving the good relationship between the two countries. Apart from neighboring Georgia, Israel is the secular democratic state closest to Azerbaijan, while Azerbaijan is one of a tiny group of Muslim states that maintains friendly relations with Israel openly and unapologetically in various areas.