Azerbaijan to lead Non-Aligned Movement next year

The Non-Aligned Movement held a ministerial conference from 5 to 6 April in Baku on the topic of the ‘Promotion of International Peace and Security for the Sake of Sustainable Development’.

It was decided at the conference that Azerbaijan will take over the mantle of organisation from Venezuela as the chair country of the Non-Aligned Movement. Azerbaijan will lead the organisation from 2019 to 2022.

At the end of the conference, a document titled the ‘Baku Declaration’ was passed, which calls on countries to refrain from threatening to use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of other states, in addition to strengthening cooperation in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and to end the occupation of Palestinian territories.

The complete text of the document can be found here.

Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev spoke at the opening of the ministerial conference, putting special emphasis on the fact that the strength of the organisation lies in its solidarity, given that member countries come up against similar challenges and problems.

“We member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement want to live an independent life without instructions from third parties,” Aliyev said, further noting that it has been more than a half-century that the Non-Aligned Movement has been propagating the principles of humanism.

He expressed his gratitude to the member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement for their support in regards to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions.

In Azerbaijan, there are a number who oppose the country’s participation in the Non-Aligned Movement.

One presidential candidate and member of parliament Faraj Quliyev said during a live, televised debate that the country should move away from its non-aligned status and should focus on structuring better relations with Europe, the USA and Israel, and that cooperation with Russia should be excluded from the country’s list of priorities.

“It is wrong to participate in the Non-Aligned Movement, because when you don’t make allies and don’t openly call a friend a friend or an enemy an enemy, you create a situation in which even friends will hesitate before furthering relations with you, and so we must reject this policy and think about new blocs,” Quliyev said in his speech.

The head of the ‘South Caucasus’ political scientists organisation, Ilqar Velizade, believes that Azerbaijan has purposefully chosen to participate in the Non-Aligned Movement because it does not see any practical benefits from joining one camp over another.

“Azerbaijan does not intend to enter NATO or the Collective Treaty Security Organisation. In entering into one of these organisations or unions, the country must see perspectives for the future – if there are none, it is better to maintain a neutral position. Our participation in the Non-Aligned Movement means that Azerbaijan has already made its choice,” Velizade told the Ekho Baku newspaper.