Speech by Ilham Aliyev at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Global Shared Societies Forum in Baku

- Dear ladies and gentlemen,

Dear guests!

Let me welcome all of you to Azerbaijan. I want to express hope that the days of your stay in our country will remain in your memory for a long time. There are people here who have come to Azerbaijan for the first time. I do hope that you have good impressions about our country, history and culture. I want to extend a special welcome to my colleagues – the former heads of state and government. Among our guests there are more than 30 former heads of state and government. This, of course, demonstrates the value of our event.

I also want to express my appreciation to the Club of Madrid – they are good partners of our country. Our cooperation was established a few years ago and is very fruitful and active. I am also very pleased that the International Center of Nizami Ganjavi, as an organization established relatively recently, has become a fairly influential international institution in a very short time and is already organizing such important forums in conjunction with the Club of Madrid. We are extremely grateful to our friends who support the International Center of Nizami Ganjavi for their activities. This center is named after Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi, who is the symbol of wisdom and talent of the Azerbaijani people.

The forum agenda is very broad and covers all important aspects of our lives. Of course, the sessions to be held today and tomorrow will result in important statement being made about the past and future work in order to provide equal opportunities and necessary living standards for everyone. A shared society is a society whose members feel comfortable, lead a decent life, have jobs and are confident of the future of their children.

We have our own experience. Our independence is relatively young. Although we gained independence only 22 years ago, we have managed to resolve various issues in such a short period of history. In the beginning, we were faced with many problems, political and economic difficulties. Now, at a time when Azerbaijan is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, these changes are beyond doubt. And we are glad to have been part of this process and to actively participate in the transformation of Azerbaijan into a modern state. Our people have beautiful historical customs, traditions and culture, but our independence is still quite young. We were independent in the early 20th century, but it happened after the collapse of the Russian Empire and the Bolshevik Revolution and did not last long, only two years. At that time, the revolution had slogans such as “factories to workers”, “land to farmers”, “freedom to all the peoples of the Russian Empire”.

But none of these promises become a reality.

So two years later we lost our independence. Azerbaijan became a part of another country. Of course, it was part of our life and history. Therefore, I think that the people who lived in the former Soviet Union value their independence more highly. They appreciate their independent choice, the right to be free and to have a state of their own. And they are proud of their states. Azerbaijan's experience shows that when our future and our destiny are in our own hands, we can do much more than in previous times. The short period of our independence shows that despite all the difficulties, economic and political crises and civil war in the early 1990s, we have been able to cope with these difficulties. Today, while planning our future, we think of how we can further improve our way of life and become even stronger.

With regard to one of the main reasons for these changes, i.e. the initial conditions, it boils down to the policy of reform because we had to change all aspects of our lives, learn to be free and independent, have our own state and move from one political system to another. It was not easy to do that but it happened. Today, our state rests on a solid foundation.

We carried out broad political and economic reforms which have modernized our country. We have achieved democratic development, provided the fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of assembly, the freedom of the media, the freedom of the Internet, which are an integral part of our present life.

Twenty-two years ago we could only dream about that. At the same time, we clearly understand that without strong economic fundamentals there can’t be complete independence. Therefore, political reforms are carried out in parallel with economic reforms. It should be noted that one of the key contributors to our success was the attraction of foreign investment. As for the countries which were faced with the same difficulties as we encountered 20 years ago, our experience can serve as a good example of how to change a country and provide a better life for citizens.

We have managed to attract foreign investment. We have channeled this investment into the industries we wanted to develop which were also attractive to investors. We have created a favorable investment environment and worked very hard to create numerous jobs even with the limited resources we had 15 years ago. Today we are moving forward in the right direction. We are well aware that the way forward lies through the strengthening of our independence, making it eternal and irreversible. It consists in the fact that we need to be economically free, independent and strong. And now I can say that after years of reforms, which are still under way, Azerbaijan can be viewed as a country that has a very bright future. Over the past 10 years we have been one of the fastest growing economies in the world. We see sustainable development as planning for the future. We have a development concept called "Azerbaijan 2020: vision for the future".

This document has been adopted as a fundamental instrument, as guidelines.

Our financial situation is stable. The level of our external debt is very low and accounts for only 8 per cent of the gross domestic product. This means that we can make plans for working more closely with international financial institutions.

At the same time, it is necessary to diversify the economy for development, because oil and gas, which are considered natural resources, were the leading criterion of our success, of course. At the present time, diversification is our top priority because you can’t create a large number of jobs in the oil and gas sector. Therefore, diversification of the economy and investment in the social infrastructure provide the necessary standard of living even in remote areas. It helps create access to broadband internet in every town. The construction of 3,000 secondary schools, 500 hospitals and other factors have allowed our society to create an entirely new environment. As a first step, we have stopped migration abroad, i.e. the outflow of people from Azerbaijan to other countries.

It was subsequently replaced with migration within the country, or the influx of people from small rural places to Baku. Our current goal to stop this migration too. This issue is also addressed every year.

Economic development is underpinned by very strong social programs. As you know, in some cases radical economic reforms may create difficulties in everyday life. Therefore, social issues have always been a priority for our government.

The improvement of living standards, the creation of jobs and the reduction of unemployment – this shows that all of this can be done. First of all, we simply need stability because nothing is possible without stability. Secondly, we have a very clear domestic policy which is supported by the majority of our population. So we need to achieve results, keep the promises we have given and meet our goals. Here we touch upon a very important issue – the responsibility of politicians. These individuals are at the top of this work. Some of our colleagues tend to make populist promises to win more support and votes. However, when the promises are not kept, people get disappointed. The responsibility of politicians is extremely important also for themselves, as it increases their credibility and further strengthens society. Therefore, the achievement of results was our main goal. These results are reflected in economic and statistical indicators. Currently, the poverty rate is at about 5 per cent, while 10 years ago it was 49 per cent.

The rapid economic development creates a very good international atmosphere around Azerbaijan, as our country is becoming increasingly recognizable. A lot more people know about Azerbaijan today.

We are currently enjoying the support of international institutions as never before in history. This is evidenced by the fact that 155 countries have voted for us during the election of nonpermanent members of the UN Security Council. This means that we were supported by the vast majority of the international community.

We were supported even by countries with which our bilateral relations were not very active. They showed confidence in us because they knew that we would keep our promises. Our main agenda as a member of the UN Security Council was to protect the supremacy of law and justice. I think these are two major elements of the present-day world. Unfortunately, both are grossly violated and there is no reaction to this violation.

There are four UN Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from our territories. None of these resolutions has been executed. The occupation continues. We have been exposed to ethnic cleansing. For more than 20 years Nagorno-Karabakh, a historical part of our country, as well as seven adjacent districts, have been under occupation. Of course, international organizations have adopted resolutions. Other international organizations, including the OSCE, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and, of course, the UN General Assembly and Security Council, have adopted decisions in connection with this. However, none of them has been executed. Apparently, there are no enforcement mechanisms.

In my opinion, what happened in the early 1990s showed that in order to be free and independent, we had to make great sacrifices. But all members of our society were completely sure that this situation cannot last long. We will return to our native lands. We will restore our territorial integrity. The Azerbaijani people, one million refugees and displaced persons will restore their right to live on their native lands captured by occupiers now. In the early 1990s, the Armenians held an illegal referendum in Nagorno-Karabakh. Prior to that, ethnic Azerbaijanis, who constitute a third of the Nagorno-Karabakh population, were driven out of there. This was followed by an illegal referendum. Therefore, no country in the world recognizes this "referendum" and the self-proclaimed "Nagorno-Karabakh republic". In other words, international law, justice and history support our position. However, we clearly realize that this is not enough for the restoration of justice and international law. To do this, we need to become even stronger. Unfortunately, we are seeing that might makes right in international relations. In this case, what are countries of our region, countries like ours supposed to do? I am sure that this issue will be discussed at this forum. There are different scenarios. However, one thing is clear: you have to be in charge of your own destiny. You must become stronger. You must work hard to mobilize society for the main priorities. For us the top priority is to restore our territorial integrity, strengthen our independence and provide our people with the best standards of living. All of these elements are interconnected. If people are seeing the results of the Government's work, if their living standards improve every day and if they are proud of their country, then society becomes stronger and does not break up. Society rallies around the main objectives. As I noted earlier, it rallies around the goals of independence and sovereignty. Of course, our society had different opinions about development, the shortcomings and problems of Azerbaijan. We always appreciate these discussions within our society. But as for the strategic aspect of our life, we are united and unanimous. This unity makes us stronger in the international arena, allows us the opportunity to talk openly about the problems facing the world today, defend our position and international law. This is the case.

Today, Azerbaijan is a country with an explicit position. It rests on justice and international law. But at the same time, we need to look 10, 20, 30 years ahead and plan our policy accordingly to achieve sustainable development. Sustainable development is one of the top priorities for any country today. Even the most developed countries have problems of their own. They are facing economic problems, migration issues. They need more manpower. But at the same time, it creates certain tensions in society. We have other problems. I think that this is not a problem but actually an advantage. We have a growing, young and dynamic population. This means that our economy must always be ahead of the population growth rate. Otherwise, we may one day encounter difficulties with unemployment. Therefore, our priorities include accelerated economic development, creation of jobs, attraction of investment and investment of the revenues generated from energy operations into the most important sectors of our economy. This is how we can achieve sustainable development.

One of the most important components of public and political solidarity in our society is multiculturalism. We have conducted several international events where we spoke on the subject of dialogue between civilizations. We have organized international humanitarian forums to address these important issues. I think that such issues are not discussed so openly in various international institutions because there are different approaches to this situation. Some people believe that this idea has not been materialized. But I believe that there are good examples and they should be considered in detail to rule out pessimism. If multiculturalism is perceived as an abyss, another way of life in this world does not exist. Otherwise, people will feel isolated. This is impossible from economic and political points of view.

Therefore, in my opinion there are positive examples based on historical traditions of Azerbaijan and indeed other countries. They should be carefully examined. We should bolster these values. It is also one of our important elements.

But sometimes it is not enough to encourage a positive experience. However, I think that in order to preserve values and? strengthen positive trends in global politics, we should pay attention to the positive experience and distribute it.

There is no other way. Countries should cooperate with each other in the future.

I am sure that many interesting discussions will be held during the forum and the governments will be provided with recommendations related to future development. The advantage of such sessions is that well-known politicians, former heads of state and government can openly share their personal experiences, knowledge and expertise. After all, the difference between incumbent and former presidents and prime ministers is that the current heads of state have certain constraints and limited opportunities. In some cases you want to say more than you do. But former politicians are free to express their views on any issue. And their word is important to achieve this progress. Therefore, I am sure that the main goal of our forum is to provide recommendations, analyze and discuss what is happening. This goal will enable us to continue doing our work in peace, live in dignity and carry out extensive international cooperation.

Dear friends, I want to welcome you to Azerbaijan once again! I wish the forum success. Thank you.