Azerbaijan ranked one of world's most powerful countries

The world's 80 most powerful countries rankings was published by the U.S. News magazine, in which Azerbaijan has taken the 45th place, leaving behind Portugal, Colombia, Thailand, Argentina, Czech Republic and Croatia..

The U.S., Russia and China ranked first, second and third, respectively. The countries with the least influence in the world are Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia and Estonia.

When compiling the rating, such criteria as GDP, size of the population and GDP per capita were taken into account.

According to the report, the world’s most powerful countries also are the ones that "consistently dominate news headlines", preoccupy policymakers and "shape global economic patterns.