‘New world order is taking shape’: Azerbaijan’s president

‘We are witnessing most serious East-West conflict since end of Cold War,’ Ilham Aliyev says at Non-Aligned Movement Contact Group meeting

Burc Eruygur |02.03.2023

ISTANBUL

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Thursday said that a “new world order is taking shape” as he addressed the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Contact Group meeting in the capital Baku.

“Now the world is witnessing the most serious East-West confrontation since the end of the Cold War, with repercussions for the remaining part of the world. As the second largest international institution after the UN, NAM should play a more visible and efficient role in the international arena and actively participate in reshaping the new world order,” Aliyev said.

He said that the international security architecture that has existed for decades is currently undergoing radical changes, adding that multilateralism is at stake with “the erosion of international law norms and principles" further threatening international order.

“More cases of violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity and intervention in the internal affairs of states are observed. The decisions of the leading international organizations are not either implemented or the selective approach and double standards are being applied,” he said.

Aliyev said that the NAM must unite to eliminate the growing trend of neo-colonialism, adding that the organization “strongly” supports the sovereignty of the Union of Comoros over the island of Mayotte, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean, and that the NAM calls on Paris to “respect the rights of the New Caledonian people and other peoples in French overseas communities and territories.”

“The French-administered territories outside Europe are nasty remains of the French colonial empire. We also call on France to apologize and admit its responsibility for its colonial past and bloody colonial crimes and acts of genocide against NAM member countries in Africa, South-East Asia and other places,” the Azerbaijani president said.

Aliyev said that one permanent seat should be given to the NAM in the UN Security Council, in addition to supporting the idea of granting permanent seats to African countries, adding that the UN body is “reminiscent of the past and does not reflect the current reality.”

He said that the UN Security Council is “inefficient,” adding that four resolutions adopted by the UN body on the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian forces from Azerbaijan’s territory were ignored for nearly three decades.

“In 2020, Azerbaijan itself restored its territorial integrity and historical justice by military-political means and enforced the Security Council resolutions' implementation. Probably, it was the first case in the world since the establishment of the UN,” he said.

The Non-Aligned Movement was formed in 1961 under the leadership of then Yugoslavia when the world began to polarize between East and West. It currently has 120 members.