Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Tuesday that flight records suggested former and current German and Russian officials had held a clandestine meeting in Baku this month, in what was Azerbaijan's first confirmation of the visits.
Speaking after a meeting in Berlin with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the Azerbaijani president said Baku had investigated the visits after reading about them in media reports.
"We received no information about this from either Germany or Russia," Aliyev said.
"In other words, our territory was simply used without our knowledge."
‘Flight data shows meeting took place in Baku’
Azerbaijan has sought to maintain relations with both Moscow and Kiev since Russia launched its full-scale war with Ukraine in February 2022, providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine while not joining Western sanctions on Russia.
Former senior German officials Ronald Pofalla and Matthias Platzeck have been holding secret meetings with high-ranking allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, including Gazprom board chair and former prime minister Viktor Zubkov, since 2024, according to reports.
Last year, meetings in Baku between German politicians including senior Social Democrat Ralf Stegner as well as Pofalla, and Russians including Zubkov and Valeriy Fadeyev, chair of Russia's human rights council, triggered concern from German legislators.
At the time, four German participants, including Pofalla and Stegner, confirmed attending a "private" event in Baku.
The meetings have taken place as relations between Russia and the European Union remain deeply strained over Moscow's war on Ukraine.
President Aliyev said flight records showed Pofalla, who once led former Chancellor Angela Merkel's office, and Platzeck, former federal chairman of the SPD, travelled to Baku on July 12 from Berlin and returned on July 14.
During this period, Zubkov and Fadeyev also travelled to the Azerbaijani capital, Aliyev said.
The flight records "give grounds to say that such a secret meeting was held in Baku," he said.
Merz said on Tuesday he was unaware such a meeting took place.
Aliyev said he could not provide any specifics on the July visit, but he added: "If this meeting will bring an end to the Ukraine-Russia war ... then of course we welcome it."
