BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Azerbaijan formally applied Tuesday to join the BRICS bloc of developing economies, a day after Russian leader Vladimir Putin's visit to the oil-rich South Caucasus country to shore up regional ties and secure Moscow’s under-pressure trade routes.

The announcement from the foreign ministry in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, comes as the BRICS alliance has seen a major expansion. For over a decade, the bloc included just five nations: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates joined in January, and Saudi Arabia has said it's considering doing so as well.

The club already includes some of the world’s biggest oil producers, and accounts for well over a quarter of the world’s GDP. Its members Russia and Iran have had their relations with the West stretched to breaking point over Moscow’s war on Ukraine and Iran's regional policies.

Business ties were high on the agenda during the meeting between Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Monday, with Aliyev announcing that $120 million had been earmarked to boost cargo transport between the two countries.

Putin increasingly depends on countries such as Azerbaijan to access global markets because of sanctions imposed on Moscow over its actions in Ukraine, according to political scientist Zardusht Alizade.

For Azerbaijan, retaining Moscow’s good-will is important for national security over tensions with neighboring Armenia, said Alizade.

Russia has been Armenia’s longtime sponsor and ally since the fall of the Soviet Union. But relations between them became increasingly strained since Sept. 2023, when Azerbaijan's military took control of the Karabakh region, ending three decades of ethnic Armenian separatist rule.

Armenia accused Russian peacekeepers deployed to the region of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s onslaught. Moscow, which has a military base in Armenia, argued that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.