Speech by Ilham Aliyev at the informal meeting of the Council of the CIS Heads of State

- Dear Dmitry Anatolyevich!

First of all, I would like to thank you for the invitation to visit Moscow to attend this meeting. The informal and sincere discussion we are having is perhaps the best indication of how important this organization is.

I would also like to thank President Karimov and President Atambayev for the kind words about my father Heydar Aliyev.

This is even more symbolic because he spent many years in this building. He worked for the benefit of Azerbaijan, for the benefit of the Soviet Union while working in Baku in the 1970s, for the benefit of the Soviet Union while working in the Soviet government in the 1980s, and as President of the independent Azerbaijan for 10 years he laid the foundations of statehood, enabling us to move forward confidently and successfully. So I would like to thank his friends for remembering him on a day when we are drawing conclusions to the 20-year period of the CIS in such an informal atmosphere.

Twenty years is a long and simultaneously not very long time from a historical perspective. Our colleagues have already given an assessment of the processes that occurred in the late 1980-1990s. Some were personally involved in the transformation and laid the foundations for the statehood of their respective countries. And, of course, I want to join those who said that one of the main outcomes of the process that occurred in the early 1990s was the relatively peaceful formation of new states. Of course, it wasn’t quite peaceful for all. As for our country, our lands were subjected to occupation even before the collapse of the Soviet Union. But overall, the current relations between the overwhelming majority of CIS countries are the relations of friends and partners.

Over the 20 years our countries have been transformed. We have completely transformed the economic system.

The political system has also been transformed. All this would have been impossible or extremely difficult in the conditions of chaos, confrontation and mutual claims. Today, 20 years on, at a meeting attended by a vast majority of republics of the former Soviet Union, we are talking about how to move on. And this is very important. I fully agree with the assessments of my colleagues about the past. There are various assessments, contradictory ones, and perhaps these contradictory assessments have the right to coexist. There have been good things but there have also been concerns.

Most importantly, we need to move on.

As far as our country is concerned, we have excellent bilateral friendship with almost all the CIS member countries. Over these years of independence in which Azerbaijan has been transformed into a modern country, the relations between Russia and Azerbaijan have always been of particular importance to us, and I am pleased to say today that there is not a single unresolved issue in the bilateral format.

As for the future of the CIS, Azerbaijan intends to take a constructive and active part in all the processes.

We strongly support humanitarian cooperation. I think the experience that has been gained, including ours, provides a good basis for a comprehensive and multifaceted development of humanitarian ties. On the initiative of the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia, the First International Humanities Forum was held in Baku at the end of this year. It has already become traditional. We will hold it every year. The humanitarian component of our relations is the foundation without which no integration processes and economic cooperation can be as smooth as we want. We will continue to make every effort for the humanitarian cooperation in the CIS to develop. We will strive to engage the younger generation in it.

Of course, we would like to pass on to the next generation the relations of friendship and good-neighborliness which have evolved over the decades.

Today, my colleagues remembered our veterans. I fully subscribe to this thesis today and want to salute all our veterans who have sacrificed their health, many have sacrificed their lives for the freedom of our country. It was a patriotic war for all. Every other citizen of Azerbaijan did not return from World War II. The contribution of Azerbaijan and Baku to the victory is fairly significant. Nearly 90 per cent of petroleum products which fueled our tanks and planes were Azerbaijani, Soviet petroleum products made in Baku. This is our common history. We must not allow history to be falsified, we must prevent a situation where, unfortunately, the events of World War II are perverted. Unfortunately, some countries glorify fascism. We must fight this.

As to future priorities, I think that a focus on the subject of information and communication technologies would be quite appropriate now.

I would like to reiterate that Azerbaijan is committed to participating and actively cooperating within the CIS. In the future we will make every effort to strengthen our relations. Thank you.