Herzog meets Aliyev and Bahrain's foreign minister at Baku summit

Israeli President Isaac Herzog travelled to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, on Wednesday 14 October 2026 to take part in the Seventh Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). During the trip he held talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and with Bahrain's foreign minister, Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, according to statements issued by the President's Spokesperson.

The Jerusalem Post reported that delegations from Iran, Turkey, Kuwait, Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority (PA) left the conference while Herzog was speaking, and that the Emir of Qatar remained in the room. The Israeli government statements made available to us do not refer to the walkout.

What the visit was meant to cover

The President's office described the trip as lasting a day and a half. Its advance statement said Herzog would speak at the summit's plenary session, hold a number of bilateral meetings with leaders attending, and end the visit by meeting leaders of Azerbaijan's Jewish community.

In Israel the presidency is largely a ceremonial office, with day-to-day foreign policy run by the government. Presidential trips of this kind are typically used to sustain relationships and to represent the country at gatherings where a head of state is expected.

What CICA is

CICA, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, is a multinational forum whose stated aim is to build cooperation and closer ties between Asian states. Azerbaijan currently chairs it, and the Israeli statements say Herzog attended this edition in Baku at Aliyev's invitation. Aliyev, according to the President's office, told Herzog that his country keeps working to build trust among the member states and to push forward practical cooperation among them.

Because CICA draws in countries with very different positions on Israel, including Iran, which has no relations with Israel, a summit of this kind places Israeli officials in the same hall as governments that are openly hostile to it. That is the setting in which the reported walkout took place.

The meeting with Aliyev

The two presidents met at the Presidential Palace in Baku. The Israeli readout said they talked about ways to deepen what both sides call a strategic relationship, as well as recent developments in the region and a joint interest in regional stability and security. Herzog described Azerbaijan as a model of stability and a respected voice internationally.

In a statement released by his office, Herzog called the bond between the two countries "a unique relationship" that had shown its value "in complex times as well", and thanked Aliyev for hosting the summit. Azerbaijan, a Muslim-majority country bordering Iran on the Caspian Sea, is one of Israel's closer partners in the wider region, and visits at presidential level are a recurring feature of the relationship.

The meeting with Bahrain's foreign minister

Herzog also met Al Zayani in Baku. The President's office said the two discussed reinforcing the Abraham Accords with a view to widening peace and cooperation across the region. The Abraham Accords are the set of agreements under which Bahrain and several other Arab states established formal relations with Israel.

According to the same statement, Herzog stressed the weight Israel places on its ties with Bahrain, praised King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the Bahraini government, and sent his good wishes to the king and the people of Bahrain. The statement does not record what Al Zayani said.

The Jerusalem Post also published an analysis piece on why the meetings with Azerbaijan and Bahrain matter; only its headline and opening were available to us.

The reported walkout

The account of delegations leaving comes from a single Jerusalem Post report, and the material available to us consists of its headline. It names Iran, Turkey, Kuwait, Pakistan and the PA as leaving and notes that Qatar's emir did not. Kuwait and Qatar, like Bahrain, are Gulf Arab states, though unlike Bahrain neither has formal relations with Israel.

What the reports do not say

None of the material we have gives the content of Herzog's plenary address. It does not say whether the delegations that left acted together or separately, who exactly represented them in the hall, whether they returned afterwards, or whether any of those governments explained the move. The Israeli government statements do not mention the walkout at all, and there is no response from the President's office to it in the material.

The reports also do not name the other leaders Herzog was due to meet bilaterally, beyond Aliyev and Al Zayani, and do not describe the meeting with Azerbaijan's Jewish community. Bahrain's and Azerbaijan's own accounts of the meetings are not among the sources.