Israeli weapons company ARI Arms has started producing weapons in Azerbaijan, with President Ilham Aliyev attending the opening ceremony at the start of October, according to the company's press release. The factory is owned by Baku and is part of a joint venture between the Israeli and the Azerbaijani defense ministries. It is the country’s first facility to produce Western-style, M-4 type rifles. The opening comes as Azerbaijan continues to deepen defense and energy ties with Israel despite international condemnation over Israel’s conduct in Gaza. In June 2025, the Azerbaijani state-run energy company SOCAR bought a 10% stake in Tamar, one of Israel’s biggest gas fields, in a deal worth an estimated $1.25 billion. It was in 2024 that AS Holidays — which Ari Arms is a subsidiary of — first signed a memorandum of understanding with a company affiliated with Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry. However, Azerbaijan has denied some claims about the extent of cooperation; in August, Baku announced it was suing CNN over a report that Israeli troops operated from Azerbaijan during the Iran war. In a post on LinkedIn, Ari Arms confirmed the opening, saying they were ‘proud’ to share that ‘in a joint venture with Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defence Industry, Ari Arms has launched local production of AR-15 platform rifles (OR-4) in Azerbaijan, the first Western-standard rifle production in the country’. The Israeli company claimed that ‘Ari Arms brings the technology and know-how to establish Western manufacturing standards locally. This is what we do beyond finished systems: partnering with governments to build local manufacturing capabilities and long-term industrial independence’. ARI Arms has previously worked with the Philippines and Armenia, and won an IDF tender in 2025. ARI Arms signed the contract shortly after having a different order awarded at the end of 2024 — and then quickly cancelled, with Israel’s Defense Ministry claiming ‘flaws in the bidding process’, which ARI Arms disputes. Before receiving the contract, a Haaretz investigation found that the firm had little experience with weapons, having previously specialised in metal and plastic processing.