Speech by Ilham Aliyev at the 1st World Forum of Graduates of Moscow State Institute of International Relations

- Dear friends!

Distinguished guests!

Dear MGIMO community!

I would like to welcome all of you to Azerbaijan with all my heart, to say "welcome" to you and to express my confidence that the First World Forum of MGIMO Graduates will be at a high level and in the spirit of our traditions, in the spirit of mutual understanding and friendship. I am sure that the experiences we are going to share today will remain in our memory for a long time.

I think that each one of us, graduates of MGIMO, has about the same feelings today. We think about the years when we studied at MGIMO, remember with gratitude our teachers, classmates, and friends, and some moments of our lives. All this is natural and must have united all the graduates of MGIMO who cherish fond memories about our university. But when we are gathered for this forum today, I think that the atmosphere that exists here fully reflects the atmosphere of MGIMO which we remember, which we will never forget and which we appreciate.

As a matter of fact, MGIMO is an institution, now a university, founded on very deep and strong traditions. I would like to thank everyone who taught me, my teachers, professors and heads of departments. I would like to express my special appreciation to our great rector Nikolay Ivanovich Lebedev. Nikolay Ivanovich and I had a very long conversation, for about two hours, yesterday and, of course, remembered the years when I worked and studied under the supervision of Nikolay Ivanovich. We spoke more about foreign political and regional issues. And I was further convinced how profoundly and comprehensively Nikolay Ivanovich knows the issues of contemporary international life and accurately analyzes everything that happens. I want to reiterate that I am very impressed with our meeting yesterday. I also want to say that it was under the leadership of Nikolay Lebedev that, in my opinion, the basic traditions we are cherishing today were laid at MGIMO. Under his leadership in the 1970-80s MGIMO turned into one of the leading universities of the country and held the brand very high.

But everything is relative. I also remember that after the departure of Nikolay Ivanovich our institution and indeed the whole country entered a period of rather difficult times. There was extensive reshuffling, rectors were replaced almost annually, and the period of, let’s say, stabilization and renewed prosperity of our institute began under the leadership of Anatoliy Vasiliyevich Torkunov.

I think that all the graduates of MGIMO are sincerely grateful to him for preserving, strengthening and multiplying our tradition. Under his leadership, MGIMO is a world class higher education institution today, and many from Azerbaijan seek to receive education at MGIMO. I also have to say that the tradition of MGIMO has been passed on to us. Our family tradition continues. I am also very glad that Leyla has also received good education at MGIMO.

I think that both yesterday and today there will be many opportunities just to talk and to remember the past, but also to discuss the important issues of modern politics, international life and economic relations.

Because today MGIMO graduates hold senior positions in many countries and address important issues. Of course, I think that the meeting taking place in Baku today will give an impetus to even greater convergence between the countries we represent.

Fifteen years of my life were associated with MGIMO - first the years of study, then the post-graduate school, and then work. These are unforgettable years, these are perhaps the best years for everyone, the years of youth and formation. And the knowledge and experience I have received at MGIMO, I will say quite frankly and without exaggeration, are helping me in my work today.

Today we are all gathered in Azerbaijan, so I would like to say a few words about the road our country has covered in recent years. The years of independence started out in a very difficult way, there were very contradictory processes, the first years of independence – those were the years of chaos, anarchy, permissiveness and unrest which led to the civil war and economic collapse. The industry was in stagnation, inflation was measured in thousands per cent, and in general the prospects for the development of Azerbaijan as an independent state were highly doubtful. But the wisdom of the Azerbaijani people at the most crucial moment was manifested in the fact that the people turned to Heydar Aliyev and called on him to lead the country out of a severe crisis. And starting from 1993, even if we just look at the statistics and observe the economic and political processes, a period of stabilization began. Azerbaijan broke out of the information blockade, established strong ties with neighboring countries, with countries of the region which were totally disrupted in the first years of independence, and a period of stabilization, development and integration into the world community began. Subsequently these processes gained momentum and picked up pace. And since the 2000s, the dynamics of Azerbaijan’s development began to manifest itself in everyday life and in the growing international authority of our country.

Many successes have been achieved in the economic sphere over the past 10 years. Azerbaijan is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Over the past 10 years our economy has grown three times. The industrial capacity has also increased almost three times. Major infrastructure projects have been implemented, the poverty rate has been reduced from almost 50 to 6 per cent, unemployment is within 5 per cent, the external debt is in the order of 7-8 per cent of the GDP, while the country’s foreign exchange reserves account for about 70 per cent of the GDP. The country is economically self-sufficient. We are resolving many social problems. Of course, the energy sector still forms the foundation of the economy, and it is only natural because the world's first oil was industrially produced in Baku. The world’s first oil offshore was also produced in Baku.

The tradition in the oil and gas sector is maintained and strengthened. Of course, the energy factor at the first stage of the development of the independent Azerbaijan has helped us a lot. I think we have managed to rationally dispose of this wealth and evenly distribute the natural resources among members of society.

But at the present stage, when energy issues have been successfully resolved in general, the main objective for us is to develop the non-oil sector. A lot is also being done here, but there is still a lot to do. But even the statistics for the first three months suggests that the economy in the non-oil sector grew by more than 11 per cent, and this is an indicator of diversification of the Azerbaijani economy. A lot is being invested in modern technologies, in the information and communication technology. In February of this year, we launched the first Azerbaijani artificial telecommunication satellite "Azerspace-1". Thus, Azerbaijan has joined the club of space-faring countries. I think that this is what reflects the realities of the present-day Azerbaijan and our intention for the future, because it is impossible to develop without technological progress and without the innovation-based economy.

Of course, we can and I think we should learn from the experience of advanced countries, but we also need to work very hard to train modern and qualified personnel. A lot is being done in this direction too. There is a state program for the training of our students at leading universities of the world, including MGIMO. This creates the necessary human resources without which it is simply impossible to develop the economy of the country at the desired pace. As I have said, development is diverse now. The sectors of the economy that did not even exist in Azerbaijan before are now developing. As I mentioned, the ICT sector and the sphere of tourism are actively developing, but a lot remains to be done in this area.

I also have to say that the economic achievements of Azerbaijan have been noticed by leading international organizations. The world’s three major rating agencies – Fitch, Moody's and Standard & Poor's – upgraded the credit rating of Azerbaijan at a time when many European countries are faced with the opposite picture.

Also, according to the assessment of the Davos World Economic Forum, the Azerbaijani economy is in 46th place in the world and first in the CIS in terms of competitiveness. And this, I think, is an indication of the fact that we have managed to get away from lop-sided development of our economy and industry, and the foundation that has been laid will, of course, only work for the good of our country in the future.

Issues related to the energy diplomacy are successfully resolved as well. I think that this term is fully justified in the present conditions, because quite often energy security issues develop into security issues as a whole. In this case, due to its natural resources, geographical location and a developed infrastructure for the transportation of oil and gas resources, Azerbaijan is playing an increasingly important role. We have also established very effective links with our neighbors. Azerbaijan is an exporter of oil, gas and electricity to all the neighboring countries. Of course, cooperation in this area, especially between producer countries, is of particular importance at this point because producers are naturally interested in the markets, they have a common interest.

I have to say that the issue of energy diplomacy is directly linked to the issue of foreign policy. It would probably be wrong not to touch upon some issues related to Azerbaijan’s foreign policy initiatives here. We are conducting a very active foreign policy that has long gone beyond our regional frames. On the regional scale, the initiatives we have put forward are largely supported by our partners. These initiatives are first and foremost associated with economic development, integration processes and energy issues. We are also actively pursuing an independent foreign policy on international issues.

I think that one of the most important issues of the recent period has been Azerbaijan’s accession to the Non-Aligned Movement Organization. I think that this is a significant event which reflects the modern vector of Azerbaijan’s foreign policy aspirations. I think it is also another element in our active foreign policy on a global scale. And the support we received from members of the Non-Aligned Movement at the first summit we attended, in particular, on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, once again proves the correctness of our choice.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict poses the biggest threat to the security of the region and Azerbaijan.

The unresolved status of this conflict is affecting the entire region. There are internationally recognized legal norms that dictate the ways for the settlement of this conflict, namely the fact that the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan must be restored and all the territories under occupation – both Nagorno-Karabakh and the area around it – should be returned to the party that owns these territories under international law. The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is recognized by the entire international community and should be restored without any preconditions.

We strive to give a further impetus to the negotiating process. Unfortunately, the opposite side is applying the delaying tactics which has no future. It is more expensive to contend or be at enmity with Azerbaijan today than ever before, while in the future it will be simply impossible. So it is in the interests of all the interested parties to reach a settlement of the conflict on the basis of the principles of international law, the Helsinki Final Act, the decisions and resolutions of international organizations as soon as possible. Among them, of course, I would like to first of all point to the four UN Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian occupying forces from our territory. Unfortunately, the resolutions adopted 20 years ago are not being fulfilled. And here we are faced with yet another manifestation, another element of double standards. All of us, as they say, former and current experts on international affairs, know perfectly well what is going on in the world. We are well aware that, in some cases, resolutions of the Security Council are executed in a matter of hours. In our case, these resolutions have remained on paper for 20 years. This does not add credibility to the Security Council and the UN as a whole. I believe that an early settlement of the conflict will also remove this unnecessary ambiguity and eliminate the elements of double standards, which, unfortunately, are still quite widespread in present-day international affairs.

Another important event in the international life of Azerbaijan is our election to the very Security Council which has adopted resolutions on Karabakh. This was the apex of our foreign political activity. We received the support of 155 countries and are sincerely grateful to all the countries that actively supported us, first of all, to our neighbors. Azerbaijan received the greatest support in being elected as a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council from our neighbors. I want to sincerely thank you once again. Support also came from many other countries, i.e. the world community. Sometimes, when we hear the term of world community from certain platforms, for some reason those who articulate this expression mean some regional organizations that do not have a large number of members. The world community is the UN. The world community is all of us, all the countries. It is not some sort of a club of the most developed or selected countries, it is all of us. We are all equal and have equal rights according to all the laws – the laws of nature and international law. Therefore, the active support of the international community – let me repeat that a total of 155 countries voted for our candidacy – is evidence of a successful foreign policy.

In conclusion, I would like to once again welcome you and express my gratefulness to all of you for coming here. I know that you are all very busy people and that you hold prominent positions in your countries. Nevertheless, you have found the chance to come here and be together again. It is an indicator of the feelings we have for each other and, above all, for our native MGIMO. I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that this forum is called the First World Forum of MGIMO Graduates. So this suggests that it will not be last. And even though it might be both a little premature and quite appropriate to talk about it now, taking into consideration several factors I will specify in a second, I would suggest that the second MGIMO forum be also held in Azerbaijan.

Speaking about these factors, I have to say that, immodest as it may seem, I am so far the only president. You know, in some situations it may be pleasant to be the only one, but, frankly, in this case I would like to see more of our fellow graduates among my colleagues. I think that we will be holding forums of heads of state and government among MGIMO graduates in the future. If we approach this issue from the point of view of the alphabet, Azerbaijan is also on top, not to mention the approach based on the alphabetical order of last names. So I want to say in all seriousness once again that we would be very happy to meet again in a year or two, whenever we decide, and to continue our dialogue.

Welcome once again, and I wish our forum success!