The EU is preparing to sign a no-strings-attached gas-import deal with Azerbaijan to reduce dependence on Russia following cut-offs to Europe.

The EU-Azerbaijan “strategic partnership” envisages “shipment of Caspian natural gas to the European Union and, potentially, to Western Balkan countries to increase diversification,” the draft deal, seen by EUobserver, said.

They “aspire” to “bilateral trade of natural gas of at least 20 billion cubic metres [bcm] of gas annually by 2027,” it added. And that would entail “significant investments to the expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline network” the draft deal also said, without giving a figure for the investment.

The draft memorandum of understanding nods to regional tension, including also Azerbaijan’s frozen conflict with Armenia, by voicing “respect for and support to the territorial integrity, inviolability of international borders, independence, sovereignty of each other, including all EU member states”.

And it repeatedly speaks of the EU’s need for “stable”, “secure”, and “predictable” gas supplies.

EU officials declined to say when the memo might be signed, but EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson is travelling to Baku later this month, and both sides’ officials will hold talks in Brussels on July 19.

“We have been working closely together to increase deliveries,” an EU spokesman said.

The Azerbaijan deal is not legally binding but sets the agenda for EU investment and bilateral relations going forward.

“Azerbaijan, a petro-dictatorship run by the same family for decades, also has a dismal human-rights record. But the draft EU memo makes no mention of this,” EUobserver said.