WNAM MONITORING: Organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center under the patronage of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the 12th Global Baku Forum, themed “Rethinking World Order: Turning Challenges into Opportunities,” began at the Gulustan Palace in Baku on March 13.
Speech by President Ilham Aliyev
– Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning, welcome to Baku.
I greet all our guests at the annual Global Baku Forum. First of all, I’d like to express my gratitude to you for being with us. I’d also like to congratulate the Nizami Ganjavi International Center on its extraordinary activity throughout all these years and also for organizing this important international event.
We are very proud that the Global Baku Forum has become one of the leading international platforms for addressing important issues of global agenda. Yesterday, I met with the board members.
Today, I’d like to say that we are really very grateful to all the members of the center, its board, and the co-chairs – Madam Freiberga and Mr. Serageldin – for their contribution to really magnificent transformation of the center and worldwide activity. I’d also like to say that we were very happy to see members of the NGIC actively participating in COP29, which was held last November in Azerbaijan. Several members of the center were among the Advisory Committee. The center held 16 panel discussions—actually hosted them and organized them—and participated in even more panel discussions with its pavilion. It was a big contribution to the success of COP29. That was the main international event last year in Azerbaijan.
We were really very proud to have been selected by the unanimous decision of almost 200 countries. That was a sign of respect for us, trust in us, and also an appreciation of our activity on the green transition. Although we are rich in fossil fuels, but our agenda is to concentrate on renewables. Today, it is already fully decided that in the coming years, Azerbaijan’s renewable energy capacity will be almost equal to its power generation from fossil fuels. Today, installed power generation capacity in Azerbaijan is 8 gigawatt. By 2030, we will have 6.5 gigawatt of additional installed energy capacity from renewables – primarily sun and wind, as well as hydro, mainly in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan. So, we will almost double our today’s potential.
That will allow us to be an exporter of not only oil and gas but also of green energy. These figures are absolutely realistic. They’re based on already signed contracts and MOUs.
We already see the implementation of these projects. So the decision to organize COP29 in Azerbaijan, I think, was also driven by this very responsible approach of Azerbaijan towards its energy resources.
Again, I’d like to underline that the country is not in shortage of energy supply. On the contrary, today Azerbaijan is providing energy security for more than a dozen countries. Twelve of them are recipients of Azerbaijani natural gas. Ten out of twelve are European countries.
So, it’s not by chance that the European Commission has called Azerbaijan a reliable partner and also a pan-European energy supplier. Today, oil and gas from Azerbaijan are really making a big change in energy security and actually strengthening the energy security of many countries. When we add to that our green energy sources along with a new energy cable that will stretch from Azerbaijan to Europe, partly on the Black Sea, that will be another demonstration of our responsibility and close partnership with many countries. Because it’s not enough to have only energy resources; you must have good relations with your neighbors and the neighbors of your neighbors to be able to deliver the projects of energy, security, connectivity.
Talking about connectivity, I’d like to say that due to recent geopolitical changes, the volume of cargo transportation through Azerbaijan has grown dramatically. We are well prepared for that because we have already done our homework. Now we just need to expand the capacity of our seaport, railroad infrastructure to be able to receive all the cargo, which has been diverted to Azerbaijan in recent years. So this, of course, adds to the geopolitical importance of our region, the region of the South Caucasus, where we are still working to achieve peace.
What else can I say about COP? First, it was very challenging because we had to organize this event in less than one year. Usually, countries are given two years to prepare. That was successfully done based on a unanimous opinion.
Second, we had to deliver results. And here, our diversified foreign policy helped us. Because for four years, we chaired the Non-Aligned Movement, the institution of 120 countries, and actively supported member states in different situations, including during the COVID time, providing humanitarian and financial assistance to more than 80 countries. At the same time, through active communication with European actors, we have seen our role as a kind of bridge builder between the Global South and the Global North. I think we achieved success because it was not easy to agree on many substantial issues during COP29.
One of the milestones, one of the achievements, was consensus on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which was a stumbling block for more than 10 years. So, for more than 10 years, parties could not agree on that. But here, we managed to achieve consensus and make the carbon market functional. This is instrumental for the future development of the process. Another important achievement was that at COP29 in Baku, we managed to increase the funding for renewable energy projects from the original 100 to 300 billion US dollars. Yes, we know that some countries were not fully satisfied with that. They expected an even bigger increase. I think what we managed to do is to triple the financing, which should be properly appreciated. Therefore, COP29 in Baku is called the Baku Breakthrough, and that’s an important legacy.
I’d like to say that, unfortunately, this global international event was accompanied by a campaign in some Western media, which President Trump calls fake news—and I fully agree with him— a campaign to discredit Azerbaijan, blackmail us, and spread rumors and different disinformation. We’ve been accused that we are a country with oil and gas production. But before us, there have been several countries, including European, which also have oil and gas. But it was okay for this so-called media to ignore that. Azerbaijan’s oil production is 10 times less than production of Canada, just for instance. Our contribution to global gas emissions is only 0.1%. We know who the biggest contributors to global gas emissions are. Nevertheless, on a regular basis, sometimes more than a dozen articles daily were aimed at presenting Azerbaijan as a petrol state and as a country, we do not deserve to host a global event. All that was generated from several centers, actually two: one in the US State Department. The fake news outlets like the Washington Post, New York Times, Politico, Newsweek, and the Associated Press were just implementing the instructions of the US State Department.
The second source was the office of the President of France, Mr. Macron, through their fake news media like Le Monde, Figaro, and others. So, it was a coordinated campaign of blackmail and slander aimed at boycotting COP29.
There can be different reasons. But one of them was that they could not impose their will on us. They could not change our policy aimed at the full restoration of our sovereignty and territorial integrity. They could not absorb the fact that here in the Caucasus, there is a country, which follows its own national interests and does not say ‘Yes, sir’ to so-called big bosses. Unfortunately, the government of France even went further, advocating for many countries to boycott COP29. We have credible information from the world leaders who attended COP29 and informed us about that, and from those who did not come but conveyed the message that, personally, the President of France was campaigning against COP29.
This is a kind of politics, which does not give credit to anyone. But regardless, we had big representation. There have been 77,000 registered participants, including 70 heads of state and government from 197 countries. The only country, which boycotted COP29 was Armenia.
On the Armenia-Azerbaijan process, we cannot and we will not forget the years of occupation and the suffering of the Azerbaijani people, which was caused by Armenian occupation and aggression. Those who visit the liberated territories can see the level of barbarism. So all our cities are in ruins. Now we are rebuilding them. But everything was leveled to the ground, and that was a deliberate urbicide against our villages, cities, against our religious and historical heritage. So, 65 mosques were demolished, and in those mosques, which were half demolished, they kept pigs and cows in order to insult the feelings of not only Azerbaijanis but all Muslims in the world. We will not forget that.
We will not forget the genocide of Khojaly, when Armenians killed 613 innocent people, more than 60 children, and more than 100 women. But at the same time, we need to look to the future, and we need to have peace in the Southern Caucasus, and that’s why Azerbaijan was the initiator of the peace process. Actually, Azerbaijan was even the author of the draft peace agreement, which today is being discussed between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and largely agreed. So, most of the paragraphs have been agreed.
Our fight was a fight for justice, for international law, for our dignity. We implemented the UN Security Council resolutions, which remained on paper for 27 years and would have remained for 27 years more, if we did not liberate our land by force. Here we come to a very important factor that sometimes you have to use force to achieve peace and to restore justice. Today we see it. We see how the European Union is trying to change its policy towards building strong military potential. We see other countries concentrating their resources on building military potential and infrastructure. We’ve been doing that for at least 20 years since 2005, and have created a strong army, which liberated our territory and put an end to separatism and separatists. Today, the full restoration of territorial integrity and sovereignty is a demonstration, of not only the strong will of the Azerbaijani people, but also international justice. At the same time, of course, we, as I said, have a good memory. We all remember how the current Armenian government behaved prior to the Second Karabakh War. We all remember statements by the Armenian leader who said that “Karabakh is Armenia,” and that was said in Khankendi. We all remember how he behaved in the occupied city of Shusha. You can find it on the internet. It’s a very interesting video.
Today, some European bureaucrats try to present Armenia as a dove of peace, but they forget what this current government was doing. They forget that during the Second Karabakh War, they were shelling our cities and villages. We lost more than 100 civilians because of their missiles, including Iskander-M, which was actually forbidden for export. We still have not received an answer to ‘How did the Armenian army take possession of Iskander-M?’ Because this missile is forbidden in Russia for export. Those who do not believe what I say can just take a drive, maybe 5-10 minutes from here to our Military Trophy Park and see the Iskander-M missile, which we found in Shusha. We found it already in spring 2021, because it was covered by snow. It was launched to Shusha when we liberated the city.
So, that was done by order of the Armenian Prime Minister. Ganja, Tartar, Barda, Mingachevir, Agjabadi etc., and many other cities were just under regular shell attacks from Armenia. We didn’t do it; we were fighting against the Armenian army, the occupying Armenian army. They were fighting with civilians. This is the difference, and the same was in the First Karabakh War, when they created the so-called “Buffer Zone,” but actually, they called it like that. But that was occupied territories. They expelled hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis and conducted ethnic cleansing. We will never forget it. I can tell you one more thing that the level of trust to Armenia is close to zero. So, we do not trust any of their words.
Because they are not the people who we can trust, including today’s government. Again, all that they say, for us, has zero meaning. We need documents; we need papers. We need their constitution to be free of territorial claims against Azerbaijan. It still contains territorial claims against Azerbaijan. We need the OSCE Minsk Group to be dissolved. We convey this message to Armenia, saying that there is no logic in keeping the Minsk Group. It was created to address the issue of Karabakh. Now Karabakh is done. Armenia recognizes Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. Why don’t you join us in a joint application to the OSCE to dissolve it? They don’t want. So, they want to keep “a part of their feet” on the ground, on our territory, now virtually, of course. Their military build-up – what does it demonstrate?
It demonstrates that they are preparing for a new war. Who is pushing them to war again? France and its President. Deadly weapons, which they supplied to Armenia, are aimed at us. Caesar howitzers, which today maybe be needed in other places, are being sent to Armenia. The so-called European monitoring mission, which is actually a reconnaissance mission of the European Union, is spying day and night on our border, looking just for places where they can penetrate. And we have enough intelligence information on this so-called monitoring mission. The European Peace Facility is providing millions of dollars to Armenia to weaponize it. Yes, they say they provide this money for non-lethal military installations.
But first, who can check this? And second, you give them 10 million, and then another 10 million is planned to be given. So, that actually allows Armenia to save money to buy weapons. Not only France is supplying deadly weapons. Why are they doing it? For what are they preparing? If they want peace, there is no need for that. Many times we have raised this issue with Armenian representatives and with their new bosses in Brussels. Because now they have changed the big brother; and today it’s Brussels. Until President Trump won, it was the State Department, it was USAID. It was corrupt American politicians like Menendez, who are now facing serious problems. But Menendez should not be the last one. As they say, one swallow does not make a summer. There are many more who put Armenian money in their pockets. I can name them. Their names are known: Mr. Adam Schiff, Mr. Frank Pallone, Madam Nancy Pelosi, and many others, who for decades were receiving money from Armenian diaspora organizations in the United States to attack Azerbaijan and discredit it. So, we wish President Trump success in draining the swamp. It’s not easy, but it must be done. We are ready to share information with American authorities about the illegal activity of USAID in Azerbaijan: how they bribed people, channeled financing illegally, violated Azerbaijani laws and regulations. Now it’s time to be responsible for it. We are ready to provide all the information in our possession.
Definitely, at the forum, the new geopolitical situation will be discussed. As you can imagine from my comments, we are very enthusiastic with respect to what is happening now in America. Why? It’s very simple. Because the policy of Mr. Antony Blinken towards Azerbaijan actually ruined US-Azerbaijani relations, which we had been building for 30 years. We have always been a very reliable partner and friend to the United States. When they needed us, we were with them. When they needed us in Iraq, we were in Iraq with our troops. When they needed us in Afghanistan, we were one of the first non-NATO countries to join operations in Afghanistan in 2001. And we were among the last to leave. After we left, they imposed sanctions on us. I remember it was a big frustration in Azerbaijan. I told some of their representatives, “How can we trust you?” So, when you need us, you waive the sanctions. When you don’t need us any longer, you re-impose the sanctions. How can we build long-term relations with you? So we are very enthusiastic. First, because we in Azerbaijan managed to save US-Azerbaijan relations from total collapse, despite all the efforts of the US State Department. And secondly, we hope that with the new administration, we will rebuild our strong partnership, which has always been important for the South Caucasus, for peace, security, anti-terror operations, the modern development of our region.
Definitely, it will be very interesting to listen to speakers today throughout the forum. As always, I’m sure the forum and its members will generate ideas and approaches, especially now when the forum takes place after this dramatic geopolitical change.
Once again, thank you for being with us. Thank you for accepting our invitation, and I wish the forum success.
