President Aliyev: Azerbaijan plays a stabilizing role in region
The 5th Global Baku Forum kicked off in Baku under the slogan "Future of foreign relations: Power and interests" on March 16. Co-organized by the State Committee for Work with Diaspora and the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, the forum was joined by presidents, former heads of state and government from 50 countries, current and former officials, heads and senior representatives of international organizations, renowned politicians and experts.
Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, Albanian President Bujar Nishani, Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic, Saudi Arabian Prince, Chairman of the Board of Directors of King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies Turki Al-Faisal were among the participants.
The forum discussed a range of issues including the future of transatlantic relations, the fight against terrorism and the role of China in international relations.
President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva attended the opening ceremony of the forum.
Speaking at the forum President Aliyev said that every international forum is important, and future decisions in the world depend on those discussed in such forums.
The president said that holding of this forum has already become traditional, and this is not the first time Azerbaijan holds it.
"Azerbaijan, as an independent country, is relatively new. Last year we celebrated the 25th Anniversary of restoration of our independence. Our activity, projects that we initiate in our country have positive impact on the whole region and is one of the ways to present our country to the world," the president said.
The head of state went on to say that since the last Baku Global Forum meeting, the world didn't become safer.
"We still have protracted conflicts, still have confrontations, and wars in our region. This of course is a very dangerous tendency. Azerbaijan in its region is playing an important role as a stabilizing factor. Our initiatives aim at regional cooperation, predictability and strengthening of security measures in the region," said Ilham Aliyev.
The president went on to add that Azerbaijan is not an island, and close neighborhood is of great concern to the country. He said there are still challenges, wars, conflicts, the migrant crisis, and it is a big humanitarian catastrophe.
"At the same time, the migrant crisis also leads to, I would say, less understanding between different parts of our world. It creates certain discomfort for the people of the countries where the migrants are heading to. But, this is only the consequence of what happened, because the real reason of this crisis is external political and military interference into internal affairs of these countries," he said.
The president went on to say that the migrant crisis wasn't happening five or ten years ago, it has happened recently.
"This is the consequence of, I'd say, not a very thoughtful policy towards the countries of the Middle East. And this, in turn, leads to radicalization of societies of the countries where the migrants are heading to," said President Aliyev.
The president said Azerbaijan is a country, which geography, to certain degree, predetermines its role in the region, adding that the country is investing in the dialogue of civilizations and cultures.
Azerbaijan itself suffers from war, occupation, humanitarian catastrophe as a result of Armenian aggression and occupation of its territory, President Aliyev said.
"This occupation lasts for more than 20 years, and twenty percent of internationally recognized part of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh and seven districts surrounding it, are under Armenian occupation. All the infrastructure [there has been] destroyed, all our historical, religious monuments destroyed. OSCE fact-finding mission sent delegations and groups of observers to the occupied territories, and their report clearly shows that all the buildings and historical heritage of Azerbaijan have been destroyed," he said.
"This conflict is the result of Armenian aggression against its neighbor. It is the result of separatism and war against Azerbaijan. A million of Azerbaijanis suffered from that - they became refugees and internally displaced persons. This figure is one of the highest per capita in the world. Today's population of Azerbaijan is close to ten million. When the conflict started, it was eight million. So, one million of eight million in the beginning of 1990s became homeless," President Aliyev said.
He went on to say that all the important international organizations adopted resolutions and decisions which demand withdrawal of occupational Armenian forces from Azerbaijani lands.
"The UN Security Council, which is a top body on international arena, adopted four resolutions, demanding, I quote, immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied territories. But these resolutions remain on paper, Armenia ignores them, and already 25 years have passed," the president said.
"This shows also that there's a lack of mechanism of implementation of decisions of international organizations, in particular UN Security Council. On the other hand, it shows again lack of consistence, because we all know that in some cases resolutions of the Security Council are implemented within days, if not hours, but in our case, it is 25 years and still there's no progress," President Aliyev said.
"Our refugees and internally displaced persons cannot go back to their native land. And this we consider the policy of double standards. In general, I think, the recent developments in the world show that the policy of double standards, unfortunately, has become a kind of standard in international relations," he said.
The president of Azerbaijan went on to add that the country has raised this issue many times at international organizations, drawing attention to aggression, occupation and war crimes committed by Armenia against peaceful Azerbaijani citizens.
"Armenia must be sanctioned, then it will be fair, then it will be a single standard," President Aliyev said. "Resolution of the conflict must be based on international law, and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan must be restored. People have the right to return to their homeland," said the president.
He went on to add that the unresolved Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict is dangerous to stability and peace.
"We want to resolve this conflict peacefully, but we want to resolve it. Armenia wants to keep the status-quo unchanged and ignores strong statements of the mediators, which are permanent members of the Security Council," said President Aliyev.
He added that the U.S., Russia, on many occasions have said that the status quo is not acceptable and that it has to change, and that means the beginning of de-occupation of territory of Azerbaijan.
The president went on to say that due to the broad regional development program, Azerbaijan managed to reduce poverty by ten times within the last 14 years, and it currently stands at less than six percent, while unemployment stands at around five percent.
"Of course Azerbaijan's economy suffered because of the collapse of the oil prices, but at the same time this situation forced us to be more active on economic reforms, and within a very short period, we managed to overcome the difficulties," said the president.
"You can imagine if your revenue drops 3-4 times, it is a serious challenge for any country, any family. Countries and people get used to certain lifestyle, certain development and then all of a sudden, your revenues collapse. This was a really serious challenge for our government, but I think that we managed to overcome it," the president said.
"Though there were difficulties and they continue, but in general, the period of adaptation to low oil prices, I think, has already happened, and 2017 is the year of economic growth. Even last year, when we, for the first time in 14 years, had an economic recession, if you look at the parameters not linked to oil and gas, we see that the development of our non-oil industry grew last year by 5 percent, agriculture by more than 2 percent," the head of state emphasized.
The president further said that as far as foreign policy is concerned, Azerbaijan has a strong position in the region and world.
"The international community respects us because we pursue independent policy and also we always keep our word. We are a reliable partner, and we manage to build very positive, at the same time pragmatic relations with our neighbors, which are based on history, friendship, mutual interest, mutual respect, and non-interference in internal affairs of each other," the Azerbaijani leader said.
The president noted that regional cooperation and Azerbaijan's relations with all the neighbors is of extreme importance, as it is for any country.
"If a country has problems with its neighbors, both suffer. Therefore, apart from Armenian aggression, with all our neighbors we have good relations. We implement a lot of projects, energy, transportation, trade, cultural projects which bring our peoples closer," President Aliyev said.
He went on to say that Azerbaijan has established very good relations with EU-member-countries. With nine of them, Azerbaijan signed or adopted strategic partnership document, he added.
"I think this is also a big achievement, because it shows that many European countries treat Azerbaijan as a strategic partner. And that's not only because of energy resources, our cooperation is much broader," he said.
The Global Baku Forum for the fifth time provided a unique platform for representatives of the global political elite and experts to come together to discuss modern challenges in a friendly atmosphere.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the event Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili said that the 5th Global Baku Forum is very interesting as it gives an opportunity to discuss issues faced not only by the region’s countries, but also the whole world.
The Georgian president praised the high level of organization of the forum.
In turn, former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga called Azerbaijan as a "multicultural and unique" nation.
“I can see from year to year how Azerbaijan is growing and developing,” she added. “Azerbaijan’s infrastructure is growing.”
Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic told reporters that Azerbaijan and Montenegro are successfully developing the economic cooperation in various spheres, adding that the two countries can use all opportunities to further strengthen the cooperation and open new prospects for it.
The 5th Global Baku Forum is a very important format, where former and current leaders are gathered to discuss global problems, said former president of Bulgaria Petar Stoyanov.
This is a unique opportunity to meet so many politicians together and compare views, noted Stoyanov, noting that Baku is the right place for holding such a forum.
Following the official opening ceremony, the forum featured a session entitled "The future of foreign relations".
Moderator of the session, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandria in Egypt, co-chair of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center Ismail Serageldin hailed the importance of the forum, saying it discussed topical issues.