VALUABLE MESSAGES

In early May, Azerbaijan brought together a group of 60 politicians and experts, including the representatives of think tanks, from more than 30 countries. They took part in an international conference Shaping Geopolitics of the Greater Eurasia: From Past to Present to Future held in Baku and Shusha. The event hosted by ADA University was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of national leader Heydar Aliyev. The most substantial part of the international conference was held in the cultural capital of Azerbaijan, the liberated town of Shusha. The conference participants tried to provide answers to a range of relevant issues relating to global and regional political and economic agendas.

The world will never be the same

The conference featured panel discussions attended by both government representatives and well-known socio-political figures, political scientists and analysts from around the world. In his keynote speech delivered at the conference, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev answered the questions from the world's leading analysts and simultaneously sent the messages of Baku on the most important issues of current global and regional politics.

The first of these messages concerns the settlement of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Remarkably, President Aliyev made his statements in Shusha when the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia - Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan - were holding talks in the US. Responding to a question about Baku's actions in case of Yerevan's refusal to come to an agreement, the Azerbaijani leader stated that "if Armenia does not want peace, there will be no peace. But in this case, it would miss a chance to emerge from the situation that has developed over the thirty years of occupation of Azerbaijani territories, when Armenia cut itself off from regional development and lost the chance to become a truly independent country."

"So, we hope that they will display a constructive approach. If not, we do not plan to take measures other than diplomatic ones. That is enough for us. There will be no peace, no communication, and they will be isolated again. And they will have to find a place for themselves in this new geopolitical configuration," President Aliyev said.

Undoubtedly, in terms of the new global and regional geopolitical configuration mentioned by President Aliyev, Azerbaijan's relations with the West are important. This aspect is particularly remarkable, because Azerbaijan, which unlike a number of other post-Soviet countries is not pursuing membership of the European Union and NATO, has nevertheless achieved considerable success in promoting strategic partnership with these Western power centres.

According to Ilham Aliyev, "by becoming a military ally of Türkiye, Azerbaijan to a certain extent indirectly becomes a military ally of NATO". As to the cooperation with the EU, Baku is not pursuing a "unilateral format of cooperation", thereby refusing to sign an association agreement with the union. Instead, it continues building mutually beneficial relations with the European countries. Ilham Aliyev noted the declarations on strategic partnership with nine EU member states, i.e., a third of the organisation's member states. These documents "have a value greater than the association agreement".

Azerbaijan will become much stronger

Cooperation with the US is a priority in the development of Azerbaijan's relations with the West. Even the American experts attending the conference noted Washington's flawed approach when it promotes, say, the territorial integrity of Ukraine and Georgia, but limits itself to calling for peace with Armenia when it comes to Azerbaijan. Moreover, the US participants were also critical of the notorious Amendment 907 to the Freedom Support Act in the US law.

President Ilham Aliyev reiterated that "there is a great injustice against Azerbaijan" because "a common standard approach must be applied not only to the countries of the former Soviet Union, but to all other countries. Meanwhile, political preferences towards any particular group of countries based on their proximity cannot be justified." The president also expressed his belief that "the agenda for bilateral relations between the US and Azerbaijan is indeed very impressive. Despite our discussions on the 907th amendment and some of the sensitive issues with regard to the wording on the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, it does not mean that there are some insoluble contradictions. On the contrary, we have a very broad and important bilateral agenda with the US."

One of the landmark events of the conference was Ilham Aliyev's clear articulation of Azerbaijan's position on relevant issues of global politics, including the Russian-Ukrainian war, as well as the European and global security.

"It is absolutely clear that the world will never be the way it was before the Russian-Ukrainian war," Ilham Aliyev stated and described the war as "a great tragedy for the peoples of these countries, for Europe and the whole world." He added that "the new geopolitical change will lead to the militarisation of Europe and the world. This can be a dangerous trigger on the one hand, and a kind of deterrent on the other hand." As for Azerbaijan's position, "it is absolutely clear, absolutely free of any interests of the current situation. I believe that Azerbaijan will become much stronger as a result of geopolitical changes. And like most countries, we want this war to stop as soon as possible. But at the same time, as realists, we understand that it will be impossible to stop it sooner."

Finally, Ilham Aliyev made statements regarding Azerbaijan's relations with neighbouring Türkiye and Iran to reveal the overall picture of Azerbaijan's foreign policy interests. He expressed confidence that "nothing will change the fraternal nature of relations between Türkiye and Azerbaijan. Our countries will maintain the existing format of allied relations and will further strengthen them, because in the current new geopolitical realities they have become an important factor in regional stability and security, whether in the military, energy, communications, trade, etc.".

As for Iran, President Aliyev stated that after the Second Garabagh War Tehran has made a number of steps that escalated the situation in the region. "Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are at their lowest level now. It is very difficult to predict whether they will remain at this level, go lower or go up," President Aliyev said.

Apparently, the general message that President Aliyev intended to deliver from Shusha was that Azerbaijan intended to continue playing an important role in regional processes, strengthening its position in the rapidly changing geopolitical configuration in Eurasia and in the world. This factor is also reflected in the economic area, especially in the energy sector, where Azerbaijan is consolidating its role as one of the key players, while the use of its production and transit potential has a serious impact on the course of integration processes throughout Greater Eurasia.

Being at global crossroads

The international conference on the geopolitics of Greater Eurasia also analysed Azerbaijan's role in the regional and global economy.

Revealing the essence of this role, President Aliyev noted that "Azerbaijan is a country situated right at the crossroads of the East-West and the North-South corridors. All transport routes are open and almost all of them are completely upgraded". Azerbaijan also plays a significant role in terms of the modernisation of the Middle Corridor. President Aliyev noted the improving business climate in the country, as well as major reforms in taxation and customs administration, reforms to ensure transparency in the entire financial system of Azerbaijan as factors justifying the potential and attractiveness of Azerbaijan's involvement in the project.

The conference reaffirmed Azerbaijan's increasing role in EU energy security. Remarkably, in addition to the oil and gas sector, the energy dialogue between Azerbaijan and the EU also concerns renewable energy and green hydrogen. Not surprisingly, representatives of the European Commission confirm Azerbaijan's transformation into a pan-European energy supplier.

At the same time, one of the priority directions of Azerbaijan's foreign economic activity is cooperation with Asian countries, especially in Central Asia. Ilham Aliyev expressed confidence that "Central Asia and Azerbaijan will be more integrated in the future. Because today the issues of transport security and access to export markets are more important for Central Asian countries than ever before. And it's clear why. Because they have a friendly country (Azerbaijan) with a modern transport infrastructure, including railways, seaports, the largest fleet on the Caspian Sea, as well as a growing number of ships on the Black Sea. Of course, this is a great help, and we are definitely doing our best to contribute to regional cooperation between Central Asia and Azerbaijan."

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's relations with Central Asian states, also through the Organisation of Turkic States, are only part of its participation in pan-Eurasian integration processes. Like Azerbaijan's support for the Chinese project One Belt, One Road. According to President Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan is an important link in this project. But it is also important that the future Zangezur corridor may become one of the extensions of the One Belt, One Road project, as well as a part of the North-South corridor. Therefore, "the Zangezur corridor is important not only for Azerbaijan and Armenia, but also globally, because we are expecting an increase in the number of cargo deliveries," President Aliyev said.

In general, the international conference held in Baku and Shusha, which continues the tradition of gathering representatives of the world's leading think tanks in Azerbaijan, once again demonstrated Azerbaijan's increasing authority and position on the international stage. Also, it once again demonstrated the high level of political skills of President Ilham Aliyev, and his broad vision of the essence and prospects of processes taking place in the region and around the world. As righteously put by one of the conference participants, John Nomikos, Director at the Research Institute for European and American Studies, "President Ilham Aliyev knows how to promote Azerbaijan's interests on the international stage".