by Rustam Taghizadeh
On 1 May, the opening ceremony of the 6th World Forum for Intercultural Dialogue on “Dialogue for Peace and Global Security” was held at the Baku Congress Centre. President Ilham Aliyev delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the Forum. The Forum is organised by the Government of Azerbaijan in partnership with UNESCO, the UN Alliance of Civilisations, the World Tourism Organisation and ICESCO. The event will be attended by 700 distinguished guests from more than 100 countries.
Senior statesmen, parliamentarians, religious leaders, academics, journalists and participants from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds have come together to promote peace and global security through meaningful dialogue.
The three-day forum will include 4 plenary sessions and 12 panel discussions. Topics to be discussed include education, youth, climate change, artificial intelligence, protection of cultural heritage, illegal migration and other areas.
Forum participants are expected to visit Azerbaijani territories liberated from 30 years of occupation. As part of the event, special panel sessions will be organised in Agdam and Shusha. This is also an opportunity to create a platform to address the international community from the territories liberated by Azerbaijan.
Baku’s main objective in this event is to resolve conflicts through peace leadership. Azerbaijan’s main objectives are to promote peace through dialogue, strengthen global security and enhance cooperation. The aim of the Forum is to create new policies, documents and agreements that will have the power to influence world governments on pressing issues.
After our meeting in Baku in 2019, the President of Azerbaijan said that, unfortunately, the world is not safe. Unfortunately, we see new conflicts, new areas of instability and new threats. I am confident that the audience of distinguished representatives will contribute to finding the most urgent solutions to the problems on the global agenda, ideas and new approaches will be formed.
It is an important event for Azerbaijan and the world to hold such an event before COP29.
We can achieve this when it comes to European-Global South orientation and solidarity. Azerbaijan is working on this with all its heart and our agenda is focused on this. At the same time, Azerbaijan has a green agenda, and we started it a long time ago. In fact, when we were given the presidency of COP29, we were told that by 2030 we will have 2 gigawatts of solar and wind power plants and 5 gigawatts of power plants will be commissioned. So we will have the opportunity to use renewable energy in electricity generation. We have created very good investment conditions for all this, there are investors. We also use renewable energy sources. This is a fact that we should be judged not only by the presence of oil and gas, but also by the international community. So we are not making a wrong step in this regard. As for Azerbaijan, its indicators, climate changes can be considered as an example.
The forum also revealed the fact that Armenia has caused billions of dollars of damage to Azerbaijan. But Azerbaijan fully supports the peace agreement. Peace and security in the region is an important factor.
