On 7 July 2026, Gianluca Esposito, Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, visited Baku for a working visit.

During the visit, he addressed participants of the training on “Parallel Financial Investigations”, organised within the framework of the European Union and Council of Europe joint Partnership for Good Governance project “Preventing and Fighting Economic Crime in Azerbaijan”.

Mr Esposito also held bilateral meetings and consultations with the relevant Azerbaijani authorities, which focused mainly on cooperation in the areas of counter-terrorism, fight against economic crime and cybercrime, prison and probation reforms, artificial intelligence and environmental protection as well as execution of judgements of the European Court of Human Rights.

The meetings also provided an opportunity to exchange views on priorities for future cooperation between the Council of Europe and Azerbaijan in the field of human rights and the rule of law.