BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 24. Azerbaijan
contributes to peace processes not only in the South Caucasus, but
also beyond its borders, MP, Vice-Rector of ADA University, Fariz
Ismailzade, said at the conference under the theme "Azerbaijan as a
middle power: foreign policy, regional influence and global
participation", Trend's correspondent reports from the event.
According to him, the Azerbaijani capital has played the role of
a platform for negotiations between a number of countries, and
Azerbaijan has acted as a mediator.
"This applies to both the Israeli-Syrian and Turkish-Israeli
negotiations. In the past, meetings were also held in Baku between
the military leaders of NATO and Russia. All this shows that over
the years, Azerbaijan's role as a mediator in the region is
becoming stronger. At the same time, Azerbaijan also participates
in peacekeeping missions in various countries. The activities of
Azerbaijani peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan and Iraq have played
an important role.
Azerbaijan also makes great contributions to regional peace and
security. In this context, humanitarian aid should also be
specially noted. Azerbaijan has sent humanitarian aid to more than
40 countries, and at the same time has participated in various
development programs. These initiatives indirectly serve stability
and peace, support the fight against extremism and terrorism in
those countries, as well as maintaining stability," he
explained.
Ismailzade noted that when talking about Azerbaijani diplomacy,
the energy sector and transport corridors traditionally come to the
fore.
"A lot has been written and talked about Azerbaijan's role in
this direction. It should be noted in particular that Azerbaijan is
currently one of the main participants in the strategic and
critical transport corridor connecting Central Asia and Europe.
Without Azerbaijan's transit opportunities and transport corridors,
ensuring connections between Europe and Asia would become much more
difficult in terms of both land and air transport.
It should be taken into account that conflicts often occur in
our region, and for this reason the airspace of some countries is
closed at certain times. In such cases, routes passing through
Azerbaijan play the role of an important and reliable connection.
When talking about security issues, Azerbaijan's contributions to
Europe's energy security are usually emphasized. However, today
Azerbaijan is already exporting gas to Syria, thereby further
expanding the geography of its contribution to energy security,"
the MP said.
Ismailzade also drew attention to the fact that Azerbaijan has
played a leading role in several global international
organizations. According to him, Azerbaijan, elected to the UN
Security Council in 2011, made great contributions.
"Then, Azerbaijan chaired the Non-Aligned Movement, and it was a
very successful chairmanship. Azerbaijan's chairmanship was so
successful that even the member states asked Azerbaijan to extend
its chairmanship by one year. During its chairmanship of that
organization, Azerbaijan put forward new initiatives and new ideas.
For example, the establishment of the Youth Movement and the
Parliamentary Network. However, although this organization has been
operating for more than 30-40 years, it didn't have such important
elements. These were created exactly during Azerbaijan's
chairmanship.
Later, Azerbaijan hosted the UN COP29 Summit. This was also a
very successful international event and made significant
contributions to the fight against international climate change.
Azerbaijan is one of the countries that played an active role in
the formation of some of these organizations and really brought
them to the forefront of global politics. I would like to
especially mention the Organization of Turkic States (OIC), which
is currently one of the leading organizations in the Eurasian
region, and even on a global scale. There are other organizations
in which Azerbaijan plays a very active role, for example, in the
OIC.
I'm citing these examples because Azerbaijan is actively
participating both in the creation of new regional organizations
and in the formation of informal cooperation formats. For example,
there is the Türkiye-Azerbaijan-Pakistan format, which contributes
to regional peace and stability," he added.
