European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is traveling to Baku today, July 18, as Europe seeks to increase natural-gas supplies from Azerbaijan in its efforts to reduce reliance on Russian energy.

“Amid Russia’s continued weaponisation of its energy supplies, diversification of our energy imports is a priority for the EU”, - the commission said on Twitter.

“President von der Leyen and [Energy] Commissioner Kadri Simson will be [...] in Azerbaijan to further strengthen the cooperation”.