“For many years, Azerbaijan has been known as the center of international events on political, economic and other topics. The history of recent years also shows that our country hosted dozens of international summits and meetings where global projects were discussed. Our country, which has already gained great experience in this field, organizes such events at the highest level with great professionalism.
The Summit meeting of the Contact Group of the Non-Aligned Movement on the fight against COVID-19 took place in our capital. Heads of state and government of about 70 countries, presidents of 5 countries, prime ministers of 3 countries, high-level representatives of various countries, as well as heads of international organizations participated in the meeting. The fact that such a high level of attention to the event is due to the urgency of the discussed topic, the growing influence of Azerbaijan in the world, as well as the successful leadership of the Movement.
Sattar Mohbaliyev, chairman of the Azerbaijan Trade Unions Confederation (ATUC), member of the Milli Majlis, expressed these views to the mass media.
“Azerbaijan has been chairing the Non-Aligned Movement since 2019. As recognized by the international community, the organization has taken a great path of development under the chairmanship of Azerbaijan, its reputation is constantly growing in the world, and the opportunities to influence global processes are increasing. It is known that during the pandemic, which raged all over the world, caused the death of thousands of people, and led to severe socio-economic consequences, Azerbaijan, as the chairman of the Movement, approached its work with great responsibility and professionalism, responded promptly and adequately to the real situation, and the initiatives it put forward in the direction of mobilizing global efforts highly supported. Directly on the initiative of the head of our state, Mr. Ilham Aliyev, an online summit of the Movement on the fight against COVID-19 was held in 2020, A Special Session of the UN General Assembly devoted to the fight against the pandemic was organized. Also, at the proposal of our country, resolutions on the fair distribution of vaccines were adopted both in the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council. What I have mentioned confirms once again that the Movement is becoming a big voice in the world. This, of course, is a manifestation of the professional leadership of our country,” S. Mohbaliyev said.
The Chairman of the ATUC said that President Ilham Aliyev touched on a number of important points during his speech at the Summit of the Contact Group of the Non-Aligned Movement on the fight against COVID-19 in Baku: “The head of state, who is a deep expert in international politics, brought up the issues of concern to the world with diplomatic mastery. One of the important points is the weakening of the influence of the norms and principles of international law against the background of the emerging new world order. Indifference to decisions made by international institutions, applied double standards are one of the factors that threaten peace and security in the world. Today, there are wars in the world that have caused a severe crisis, territorial claims have increased even more. In order to eliminate all these and other similar unpleasant situations, international organizations must improve their activities.
The deputy of the Milli Majlis emphasized that President Ilham Aliyev voiced his very important views on the UN, and these are extremely important and fair proposals for the world: “Indeed, in accordance with the requirements of the current reality, there is a great need to expand the composition of the UN Security Council, which is would be a fair step. We see that the UN cannot do anything to reduce the tension in the world. By the way, I remembered that the known 4 resolutions of the Security Council regarding the former Karabakh conflict remained on paper for a long time, and no pressure was put on the occupier to implement them. Of course, such situations lower the confidence in the world’s largest organization. Therefore, such cases call for fundamental reforms in the institution.”
“President Ilham Aliyev also informed the participants about the situation in Eastern Zangezur and Karabakh, which were freed from Armenian occupation, and once again brought the committed acts of vandalism to the attention of the world community. Of course, this is also important for the member states to exhibit a fair approach in the future. The world should know that Azerbaijan is working hard to eliminate the bitter consequences of the occupation, building new cities and villages. It does everything in its power to return the residents whose rights have been violated. On his own, without any outside help. Also, as the head of our state said, Azerbaijan is one of the countries most contaminated with landmines in the world. Since November 2020 alone, 282 people have been victims of landmines, of which 46 people have lost their lives, and 236 people have been injured. Many member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement also suffer from this problem. Therefore, President Ilham Aliyev’s proposal to establish the Group of Like-minded Countries Exposed to Mines is an extremely important factor,” added Sattar Mohbaliyev.