Last year Azerbaijan and China officially became strategic partners, a corresponding Declaration on Strategic Partnership was adopted last summer, which is a very important political step in bilateral relationship, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in an interview to China’s CGTN.
"Strategic partnership is a very high level of mutual trust and cooperation. We are looking forward to expanding our partnership with China, including in the issues related to our membership in different international organizations, not only the WTO," Ilham Aliyev said.
Azerbaijan initiated large-scale projects that created connectivity in South Caucasus and Caspian, being well-established in the region. The country has been strongly defending its national interests, its lifestyle, its independent policy, and achieved a lot of successes.
"I would say the example of Azerbaijan - a country that is relatively new on the international map, defending its national interests and establishing good contacts around the globe - demonstrates that when you have stability and unity in your society, you can defend your interests," Ilham Aliyev said.
Azerbaijan hosted the COP29 - a climate conference which unites almost 200 countries, it was a big challenge, a big responsibility, and also a big success. Prior to that, Azerbaijan successfully chaired the Non-Aligned Movement for four years, which is the second-largest international institution after the UN General Assembly, the head of state said.
"This demonstrates that our policy, based on friendship, cooperation, non-interference in the internal affairs of any country, really gains support on the international arena. So, we can be a host country for such a global international event," Ilham Aliyev said.
The Azerbaijani leader also gave an assessment of international events, explaining that we still have unstable situations and bloodshed around the world because countries with an imperialistic past want to continue interfering, dominating, and dictating and this naturally leads to resistance.
"We have managed to protect ourselves from internal interference. The economy is the foundation of everything. Ideology, economy, and national ideas - all of these combined have really brought Azerbaijan what we deserve," Ilham Aliyev said.
Not every country has the potential to do that, the head of state added.
