Israel and Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday in the field of artificial intelligence, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.

The non-binding formal agreement, which comes as the Jewish state and the predominantly Shi’ite Caucasus nation “intend to deepen their ongoing alliance through artificial intelligence,” was inked by the head of Israel’s National Artificial Intelligence Directorate, Gen. (res.) Erez Eskel and Azerbaijani Digital Development and Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev, in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem.

“AI is not the instrument of the future, it is the instrument of the present,” Netanyahu said at the event.  “We have to make sure that we are among the leading countries in this field, and I think we can do a lot more, and a lot better, together.”